Hi Had a problem with blocked shared drain that got looked at by drain company with camera who said problem was 'limescale build up in negative flow section'. So how do they descale the drains? Can it be done with a couple of Calgon tablets a week or Battery Acid down the drains:) ? The drain is 17 years old in a moderately hard water area (South Hampshire - SO50). Thanks Paul
Is the drain plastic or clay? How accesible is it? The problem with a descaler is that it will simply run away. At least it should if the drain is laid to the correct fall. You may have to plug it to hold the descaler back. The local sewage plant may not like it either although your small quantity may be diluted by the time they get it. You can get chemical descaler for removing scale from brickwork etc. That might work.
John
battery aid (brick acid/patio cleaner) certainly is worth a try. If its on a "negative flow" area that presumably means water collects..well so would acid then.
No it isn't. For one thing you're confusing two or three different acids here (sulphuric, hydrochoric, possibly oxalic), secondly none of these three are appropriate for this use. I'll leave the resident chemists to do the explanation of relative merit (or it's probably on wiki).
Best acid to use here (and a good choice) is sulphamic acid. You can find this easily as limescale cleaner. NB - _not_ drain or toilet cleaner (unless labelled for limescale) - the stuff sold for shifting organic staining is usually conc. sulphuric. Cheapest easy source for bulk sulphamic is IMHE Sainsbury's own toilet limescaler in the blue plastic bottles.
A tub of Fernox DS3 (sulphamic acid) will make hundreds of litres of decent strength descaler
Bear in mind it does dissolve cement, albeit not quickly (I use it instead of brick acid when I don't have any brick acid). I would avoid leaving it in clay pipework for a long time though.
Are you/they sure it's not congealed fat, which looks very similar, and a more likely substance to find in a pipe with poor flow? Really hot water will shift that, if you can get it flowing past.
Battery acid is sulphuric. Patio cleaner and bruick acid is generally hydrochloric, but not always.
No it isn't. Its crap. Its just safe thats all. Its alos expensive.
By the time the acid has got down the pipe, its going to be VERY dilute. You need a stronger one to start with.
You can
and a few cc of that will cost the same as a 5 liter bottle of brick acid.
Anything that dissolves limescale will dissolve cement, because by and large they are the same sort of thing..carbonates.
As will really hot caustic soda. Even faster.
My experience is that its usually both.
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