How do I descale the heat exchanger on my gas fired central heating system.

"Richard" wrote in message
...
How do I descale the heat exchanger on my gas fired central heating
system.

Not really an answer - but my father in law was told that the rattling noise
on his 4 or 5 year old, wall mounted, boiler was due to scaling up, and that
he needed a new heat exchanger, and surprise surprise this wasn't covered in
his service plan. He asked the engineer how this scaling had occurred in a
sealed system (not combi), that the same large ex nationalised company had
maintained since installation - cue no good answer. It took us about 30
seconds to fix the rattle - the casing was slightly loose and vibrating
against the wall!

Andy

On 2004-09-24, Richard wrote:
How do I descale the heat exchanger on my gas fired central heating system.

Boiler Noise Silencer/Descaler?

Fernox/Purimachos/Sentinel do them.

I've used Purimachos to great effect in my open ventes traditional
system.

Cheers
Dan.

"Richard" wrote in
:

How do I descale the heat exchanger on my gas fired central
heating system.

I descaled the plate heat exchanger on my oil-fired combi. I removed
it from the system and put it in a bath of decaler. I tried a few
varieties (I've had the boiler apart a few times now, and every time I
dump the heat exchanger in descaler while I am working, just for the
hell of it) but they all seemed similar.

There are some weak, enzyme based ones for plastic kettles and irons
and the like, which often need to be warm, but they are so slow!
Better is something chemical like Kilrock or similar. Just get
something from a hardware store. My heat exchanger was stainless
steel and copper, and seemed unharmed by even a fairly strong
solution.

The real problem is that a plate heat exchanger is a funny shaped
device internally, so you need to keep turning it in the liquid bath,
both to get the stuff into all the crannies inside, and to let the gas
out (which will act to keep the liquid off the scale if it builds up).

I gave it about 48 hours in solution, turning it constantly for the
first half hour or so, then occasionally after that. It cured the
original problem (no hot water) so it must have done something.

Two plumbers have told me these can't be descaled and have to be
replaced. I can't swear that it it 100% clear of scale, but it
certainly seems to be working very efficiently again.

Hope that helps.

In message , Richard
writes
How do I descale the heat exchanger on my gas fired central heating system.

If it's badly scaled up, you need a descaling pump and the appropriate
chemical (see the Fernox or Kamco websites)

As it happens ... I have a descaling pump, I'm in Watford

--
geoff

"John Carlyle-Clarke" wrote in message
. 1.69...
"Richard" wrote in
:

How do I descale the heat exchanger on my gas fired central
heating system.

I descaled the plate heat exchanger on my oil-fired combi. I removed
it from the system and put it in a bath of decaler. I tried a few
varieties (I've had the boiler apart a few times now, and every time I
dump the heat exchanger in descaler while I am working, just for the
hell of it) but they all seemed similar.

There are some weak, enzyme based ones for plastic kettles and irons
and the like, which often need to be warm, but they are so slow!
Better is something chemical like Kilrock or similar. Just get
something from a hardware store. My heat exchanger was stainless
steel and copper, and seemed unharmed by even a fairly strong
solution.

The real problem is that a plate heat exchanger is a funny shaped
device internally, so you need to keep turning it in the liquid bath,
both to get the stuff into all the crannies inside, and to let the gas
out (which will act to keep the liquid off the scale if it builds up).

I gave it about 48 hours in solution, turning it constantly for the
first half hour or so, then occasionally after that. It cured the
original problem (no hot water) so it must have done something.

Two plumbers have told me these can't be descaled and have to be
replaced. I can't swear that it it 100% clear of scale, but it
certainly seems to be working very efficiently again.

The plumbers may mean econonically de-scaled. In the time taken it may be
cheaper to replace the plate.

"raden" wrote in message
...
In message , Richard
writes
How do I descale the heat exchanger on my gas fired central heating
system.

If it's badly scaled up, you need a descaling pump and the appropriate
chemical (see the Fernox or Kamco websites)

As it happens ... I have a descaling pump, I'm in Watford

Maxie, how much do these cost to buy?

In message , IMM writes

"raden" wrote in message
...
In message , Richard
writes
How do I descale the heat exchanger on my gas fired central heating
system.

If it's badly scaled up, you need a descaling pump and the appropriate
chemical (see the Fernox or Kamco websites)

As it happens ... I have a descaling pump, I'm in Watford

Maxie, how much do these cost to buy?



I would have thought you would have known such things. I have no idea
what mine cost, but they're not cheap.

For anyone interested

http://www.kamco.co.uk/descaling.htm

might be a useful site to look at
--
geoff

On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 01:36:02 GMT, raden wrote:

I would have thought you would have known such things. I have no idea
what mine cost, but they're not cheap.

For a one-off, those cheap pumps that are driven by a drill are sufficient.
Rubber vanes in a plastic case. They build up sufficient pressure to push
through a bit of crud. Mine at least reverses well enough, littel arrows
notwithstanding, so you can cycle backwards and forwards to get all the littel
pipes clean.

There is also enough pressure to pop carelessly secured hoses off, spraying acid
all over the place.


Thomas Prufer

"raden" wrote in message
...
In message , IMM writes

"raden" wrote in message
...
In message , Richard
writes
How do I descale the heat exchanger on my gas fired central heating
system.

If it's badly scaled up, you need a descaling pump and the appropriate
chemical (see the Fernox or Kamco websites)

As it happens ... I have a descaling pump, I'm in Watford

Maxie, how much do these cost to buy?

I would have thought you would have known such things.

Maxie, I don't buy one every week.

I have no idea
what mine cost, but they're not cheap.

For anyone interested

http://www.kamco.co.uk/descaling.htm

might be a useful site to look at

Thanks Maxie.