Water hardness and removal of scale.

[Clive Arthur]

We have a water softener, standard ion exchange type in which you put salt blocks.

We still get some scale, though it's a much finer and harder scale which is immune to normal descaling acids, so I'm guessing Sulfates. It's a cosmetic problem really, as it gives the the chrome plated taps and pipes a matt covering as well as staining the porcelain a bit. I've tried chemistry to no avail, and abrasion with normal cleaners doesn't work.

Wire wool works, but is time consuming and runs the risk of scratching the chrome. I haven't tried it on the porcelain.

I wondered - if I turned the softener down so that some carbonate got through, would the subsequent combined deposit be easier to remove with normal acidic descalers?

Or other idea?

Cheers

[The Natural Philosopher]

Some descalers will get at the sulphates

[Peter Parry]

I've used oxalic acid on some orange/brown deposits on tiles with complete success.

[tabbypurr]

aluminium is the no.1 choice for descaling chrome.

NT

[Clive Arthur]

<snip>>

? Is there a word missing?

Cheers

[tabbypurr]

no :) You could add 'foil' if you want, but it's not restricted to foil.

NT

[Reentrant]

A softener exchanges low-solubility metal ions such as calcium, magnesium, iron etc for sodium ions, and *all* sodium salts are readily soluble, including sodium sulphate.

Maybe you just need to turn up the setting on your softener (is it timed or measured?). It might be interesting to scrape off some of the scale, get it in a hot flame, and see what colour you get - that might identfy the metal component.