Scale in Hoses or Tanks

[po46camelot]

Hi All
Having just spent the weekend bashing the heck out of the waste hose from the head on our yacht to get rid of the built-up calcium scale (picture a 2m length of 1.5” i.d. hose, fully blocked up with scale; there was no way that muriatic acid or vinegar was going to dissolve that stuff away!!), it got me to thinking about my other water systems.

The local drinking water supply is very ‘hard’ so I am wondering if the lining of my water tanks are becoming similarly encrusted.

Does anyone know of products out there that can be used to remove calcium scale from potable water systems? I am keen to try to get ahead of the problem on this (fortunately the water tanks are several years newer than the waste hose) as the prospect of dismantling our under-sole tanks to tackle such a problem is not very pleasing to my mind ....

Cheers... Dan

[swagman]

Hi Dan,
Getting rid of uric scale that has bonded with a calcium scale is tough. We found a monthly rinse and flush with vinegar plus flushing with waste fresh water tended to keep the issue away.
I suspect a real expert will come along with the reasons why, but I do not think the uric scale you've obviously accumulated in your black water pipes is any indication you might have built up a similar level of calcium scale in your fresh water system......
Maybe worth opening a tank to look inside and see if you've a probem that needs attention before introducing chemicals to the system.
JOHN

[capngeo]

+1 on the above... uric scale is a huge problem in waste systems.... In fact the #1 plumbing issue on cruise ships since low flow flush toilets.

[Hud3]

Our VacuFlush head used fresh water, and we still got scale buildup in the waste discharge line.

Regarding your question about the freshwater system, we never had any scale build up in the lines. Have you inspected your lines to see if you actually have any scale? Pop one off the supply to a faucet and take a peek. You may not have a problem to solve.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Dan.

What the others have said.