Quote:
Originally Posted by thinwater
The key is knowing what the deposit is made of. If it is lime-like or scale-like, it is probably a combination of calcium salts, including hydroxide, phosphate, and urate.
The answer to these is acid, and not a very weak acid like vinegar. A complete waste of time. Also not muratic acid, since stainless does not like strong chloride under acid conditions. I would go for a descaling chemical like Barnicle Buster or Lime-Away. These will be 10-100 times faster than Vinegar and will take 10-20 times less. Let it soak, chip a little, and soak some more. It may take quite a lot.
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We just had to solve a hard clog in our the discharge hose between
toilet and waste tank. Apparently made up of uric acid crystals, or what Peggie often calls struvites, that turned solid after drying out for a few days (while I had the system open, working on an unrelated issue).
The same company that makes Barnacle Buster also makes a product called Sew Clean ("Soo" Clean).
Raritan also private brands SC as C.H. (Cleans Hoses). I happened to have some BB concentrate on hand, and the MSDS says they're pretty much the same (a solution of phosphoric acid, with no info about concentration levels) so called the company to see if the stuff is interchangeable.
The answer was that BB just also contains some additional algaecides, but they projected BB wold work fine for our purpose. They instructed to use the SC dilution ration (5:1) instead of BB's 4:1, I think to extend the amount of usable concentrate. Soak overnight, flush. Repeat if necessary.
Using BB cleared the clog on the first soak. I repeated anyway.
Don't know if safe for stainless; didn't ask. Would assume it's dissolve that kind of sediment within a tank, though, not just in hoses.... assuming the sediment is on the bottom and lower sidewalls of the tank.
-Chris