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Puriclean and milton wont do much to descale your hot water system of limescale.  Are you sure that it needs doing?  What are your symptoms?  I have used distilled malt vinegar to descale things like steamers, and it works quite well. Use in proportions of 1 part vin to 3 parts water, bring to the boil for a few minutes, turn off the power and allow to soak for half an hour, bring to boil again and then drain and flush through. I have no idea what effect vinegar may have on plastic parts and seals but steamers etc recomend vinegar as oposed to proprietry descalers as its less harsh! proceed with caution!

Brian

Thanks everyone for advice i think will leave it for now

Quote: Originally posted by LegsDownKettleOn on 04/6/2011

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I also like to dabble with Mamod toy steam engines. A lot of people use distilled vinegar to descale their boilers but you must be very careful as it will cause de-zinc in brass very quickly destroying the boiler. (De-zinc being where the zinc is leached out of the brass leaving just the copper behind in a porus and brittle condition)

We occasionally use a substance in work from Fernox to descale steam generators. I don't see the stuff we use anywhere on the internet. It may be something that is only sold for industrial applications. They do sell various descalers and cleaners though for domestic applications.

Post last edited on 04/06/2011 21:05:16

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Used to deal with the company thant makes Fernox (Betz Dearbon), it is quite a potent descaler and watered down versions can be bought at DIY stores for domestic heating applications, however industrially it is usually a 2 or 3 part system, involving at least an inhibitor (usually phosphate), which stops the acid descaler corroding the metal. However another vote here for Citric acid, good for most small applications and doesn't leave a nasty aftertaste (you could always make some homemade lemonade with the leftover as well)

Jon

Quote: Originally posted by La-la on 05/6/2011

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Can I ask what sort of ratio vinegar to water you use ?  All this hot water in a caravan is also new to us - our old van was very basic !

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