The water at our house has a lot of calcium in it. When you heat it a scale forms in the teapot or container that you are using to heat the water. We always use a filter when we fill our trailer but the calcium seems to go right through it.
Last fall when I winterized the trailer everything seemed fine. This spring when we brought her out of storage we had an issue with a partial plugged mixing valve on the heater. It eventually cleared itself up. I suspect that during last years camping season we developed calcium scale inside the water heater which broke loose when we reactivated the trailer in the spring and that plugged the mixing valve.
I'd like to prevent that from reoccurring by cleaning out the scale before putting Chara away for the winter. Typically one cleans out the scale by heating up a strong vinegar solution and then rinsing. So I'm thinking I should put pure vinegar in the water heater, heat it up for a while and then rinse it out real good. Perhaps do this 3-4 times.
Two questions come to mind. 1) How do I get the water heater full of vinegar. and 2) If I do this am I likely to have large flakes of scale come loose and plug up the mixing valve again?
Thank you Alan. That answers my second question. Now I just need to figure out how to fill the water heater with vinegar in the first place.
It looks like they recommend just using the same bypass hose that I use to pump antifreeze into the system. As long as I can flush the vinegar out of the entire system when I'm done that should work.
2000 25' Safari
Davidson County
, NC Highlands County, FL
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 4,493
Yes, use the anti-freeze inlet at the water pump. When you drain the HW tank, but leave all of rest of the plumbing full of water, the only place the vinegar has to go is into the HW tank.
__________________
Alan
2014 Silverado LTZ 1500 Crew Cab 5.3L maximum trailering package
This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Airstream, Inc. or any of its affiliates. Airstream is a registered trademark of Airstream Inc. All rights reserved. Airstream trademark used under license to Social Knowledge LLC.