Vinegar or Barnacle Buster?

[ferrailleur]

Is there a difference?

[billknny]

Yes there is a difference. Barnacle Buster WORKS.

Vinegar is a waste of time for removing barnacles and other fouling organisms. If you are thinking of using vinegar for cleaning blackwater piping you can see how effective it is...

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by ferrailleur

Is there a difference?

Yup.. ones great with onion, tomato and cilantro chopped and served as a side..
The others to gritty.

[MV Wanderlust]

As I recall, the business end of Barnacle Buster is phosphoric acid. The gallon size concentrate jug of Barnacle Buster is about $75.00 at West Marine. You can get a gallon of phosphoric acid at Home Depot or Walmart for around $10.00. Mix it about 4:1 with freshwater and you've got pretty much the same thing.

I go a tad stronger and put two gallons of phosphoric acid in a five gallon bucket, fill it the rest of the way with fresh water, use a Sea Flush attachment to suck it all into the engine, let it sit for about an hour, then open the seacock and flush it all out. Seems to do a great job and doing no harm.

[ferrailleur]

Originally Posted by JohnEasley

As I recall, the business end of Barnacle Buster is phosphoric acid. The gallon size concentrate jug of Barnacle Buster is about $75.00 at West Marine. You can get a gallon of phosphoric acid at Home Depot or Walmart for around $10.00. Mix it about 4:1 with freshwater and you've got pretty much the same thing.

I go a tad stronger and put two gallons of phosphoric acid in a five gallon bucket, fill it the rest of the way with fresh water, use a Sea Flush attachment to suck it all into the engine, let it sit for about an hour, then open the seacock and flush it all out. Seems to do a great job and doing no harm.

Excellent formula to experiment with..... Thanks....

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by billknny

Yes there is a difference. Barnacle Buster WORKS.

Vinegar is a waste of time for removing barnacles and other fouling organisms. If you are thinking of using vinegar for cleaning blackwater piping you can see how effective it is...

^^ This. They have been tested side by side in PS, and the difference in rate is about 10x. Additionally, the vinegar actually does MORE damage to metals and rubber than vinegar for equal effectiveness.


The best acid depends on the metal and what is being removed. CLR is kind to aluminum, and HCl is good on plastics and steel (but not aluminum or red metals), just watch the dilution and time.


Vinegar is for salads.

[Paul L]

Parts left entirely in vinegar will cleanup decently, but it can take weeks of soaking. Its all a matter of how strong the acids are you are using.

[GordMay]

Vinegar is acetic acid (C2H4O2). Vinegar’s pH level varies based upon the type of vinegar it is. White distilled vinegar, the kind best suited for household cleaning, typically has a pH of around 2.5.
Barnacle Buster Premixed is primarily Phosphoric Acid (H3PO4 <10%).

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by ferrailleur

Is there a difference?

Yes

Look it up

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by JohnEasley

As I recall, the business end of Barnacle Buster is phosphoric acid. The gallon size concentrate jug of Barnacle Buster is about $75.00 at West Marine. You can get a gallon of phosphoric acid at Home Depot or Walmart for around $10.00. Mix it about 4:1 with freshwater and you've got pretty much the same thing.

FWIW, Trac told me once that BB also has some additional marine life/growth inhibitors. Their Sew Clean is closer to diluted phosphoric acid, i/.e., without the additional marine stuff.

I can add that BB nicely cleaned out one of our sanitation lines that had become clogged with probably uric acid crystals. I just happened to have some BB on board, and Trac advised to dilute to 5:1 (as for SC) instead of 4:1. Worked great.

-Chris

[MV Wanderlust]

[QUOTE=ranger42c;2824200]I can add that BB nicely cleaned out one of our sanitation lines that had become clogged with probably uric acid crystals. I just happened to have some BB on board, and Trac advised to dilute to 5:1 (as for SC) instead of 4:1. Worked great./QUOTE]

Interesting. Never thought of using it to clean out sanitation lines. Thanks, Chris.

[MooGroc]

I had a very bad barnacle attack one year. My anti-fouling didn't seem to do anything (Hydracoat Eco). I tried Barnacle Buster but it wasn't up to this big job at all. A stiff, sharp scraper and a LOT of work was the solution;

[hpeer]

I’ve a steel boat and use Ospho for this and that aboard. One year I spilled some down the side and didn’t notice for a few days. I had just done the bottom and it ran down the topsides and kind of canned out a bit on the bottom paint. I didn’t think too much about it until I hauled out, where the acid had run was clear of barnacles.

In later years I tried it on a couple of patches and it seemed to work. Since then once or twice I’ve applied it to the whole bottom. Last year, for what ever reason I didn’t do it and got a bumper crop. Now I also laid in a couple of bio active bays for a couple of months. This year I applied the acid (Ospho diluted about 4:1) with a sponge in early November. I laid in Marigot Bay, St Martins for two months. I had to scrape the dingy bottom twice. The main hulk had some soft growth, but that flushed right off as soon as we started moving. ABC3 abalative bottom paint. It will be interesting to see what we look like in April, I’m thinking we will be clean. I hope.

There are so many variations between water temp, quality, bottom types, temperatures, amount of travel, speed etc it’s hard to make qualitative pronouncements.

[MV Wanderlust]

Originally Posted by hpeer

I’ve a steel boat and use Ospho for this and that aboard. One year I spilled some down the side and didn’t notice for a few days. I had just done the bottom and it ran down the topsides and kind of canned out a bit on the bottom paint. I didn’t think too much about it until I hauled out, where the acid had run was clear of barnacles.

In later years I tried it on a couple of patches and it seemed to work. Since then once or twice I’ve applied it to the whole bottom. Last year, for what ever reason I didn’t do it and got a bumper crop. Now I also laid in a couple of bio active bays for a couple of months. This year I applied the acid (Ospho diluted about 4:1) with a sponge in early November. I laid in Marigot Bay, St Martins for two months. I had to scrape the dingy bottom twice. The main hulk had some soft growth, but that flushed right off as soon as we started moving. ABC3 abalative bottom paint. It will be interesting to see what we look like in April, I’m thinking we will be clean. I hope.

There are so many variations between water temp, quality, bottom types, temperatures, amount of travel, speed etc it’s hard to make qualitative pronouncements.

Ospho. Huh. Very interesting. Please post your findings in April.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by MooGroc

I had a very bad barnacle attack one year. My anti-fouling didn't seem to do anything (Hydracoat Eco). I tried Barnacle Buster but it wasn't up to this big job at all. A stiff, sharp scraper and a LOT of work was the solution;

I've only ever used BB (and Rydlyme) for flushing raw water systems (mains, genset, AC) and that one time as a substitute for Sew Clean. Works well on all those.

Don't think it's marketed as effective for general purpose anti-fouling... where power washing and scraping seem more appropriate.

-Chris