CLR - Water Heater

[DoDa]

Would putting CLR through in your hot water tank dissolve the shale that builds up inside?

Donna

[Christian Fox]

Maybe, but why would you want to put poison in your household water supply? Just drain a few gallons every six months or so.

[Gary Slusser]

I wouldn't do this but, if you got enough of it in the tank, it should dissolve hard water scale but... buying a softener is the correct way to solve the problem. And softened water will dissolve the scale that's already built up.

Gary Quality Water Associates

[nospambob]

[George E. Cawthon]

Probably, but you would need at least 10 gallons for a 40 gallon tank and you would have to stir it several times over a 24 hour period. ClR, sold in 28 oz units, is about $6.80 a quart, so 10 gallons is about $272. You can buy a new heater for that amount. BTW, its "scale" not "shale." If it were shale, CLR wouldn't get it out. :)

[Gary Slusser]

Yeah it's been awhile. I've been posting on a number of web site forums and that keeps me pretty busy and my internet softener business is booming on top of that. Plus there aren't many questions here anymore since many forums have sprung up.

If your resin wasn't replaced with the control valve, it's way past time, and the softener is probably too small and allowing hard water through it at peak water use times. The noise in the gas or oil fired water heater proves that scale was building up in it. Draining and flushing gas and oil fired heaters doesn't get much if any scale out of them due to how they apply the heat to the tank; at the bottom and up the flue pipe. The scale is a solid mass sticking to everything it can, not pieces like in electric heater where the elements allow it to fall off with the expansion/contraction of the elements. In some electric heaters the scale clumps on the elements and doesn't fall off.

Gary Quality Water Associates

[nospambob]