CLEANING TRUMA BOILER WITH CITRIC ACID (1 Viewer)

cazian

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I have purchased some food grade citric acid to clean my Truma boiler. Can anyone help with how much to put in per litre?
 

DBK

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Mine has a Webasto and they recommend vinegar at a ratio of 1:2 with water.

The problem is you need quite a lot of vinegar so I'm going to see if I can buy some of the stuff chip shops pass of as vinegar as it should be cheaper in bulk. Chemically it will be the same - ascetic acid.

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Hils and Glenns

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I didn't know you cleaned the boiler. How often would you do this? I wonder if coca cola would do it.
 

Portland

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If you're brave enough try Aqua Fuerte (can't guarantee the spelling ) mercadona spain but not if their is any ferrous metals in the boiler. That stuff will clear most things
 

scotjimland

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I'd be very wary of using anything other than products approved by Truma.. ie Citric acid or Truma Aqustar 1+2 ..

Vinegar ..

from Truma information

Vinegar
Vinegar is produced by fermenting alcoholic liquids with acetic acid bacteria (Mycoderma aceti). Vinegar is a descaling agent due to its acid content, but it leaves behind an unpleasant taste which adheres to plastics and rubber and is very difficult to remove. Vinegar is not suitable for descaling drinking water systems in mobile homes, as it attacks rubber seals and even some metals.

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scotjimland

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I have purchased some food grade citric acid to clean my Truma boiler. Can anyone help with how much to put in per litre?

had a Google and found this on an ebay seller of Citric Acid http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1kg-Citric-acid-food-grade-Top-quality-/140426902395

Kettle descale
Use 2 TBLs/liter. Boil it together.Rinse with fresh water.
If you have aluminium parts use 1TBLs/litre.

so for a 50lt tank = @ 1 TBLsp per litre = about 1.7kg of citic acid.... if correct, that's a lot of citric acid :eek:
cost £14 ..

Truma Aquastar 1+2 cost £20

I'd go with Aquastar ,
 

DBK

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I'm not sure why it is necessary to fill the fresh water tank with the citric acid solution if the aim is just to descale the boiler. I bought 500g of citric acid from a home brew shop today and will dilute that with water. This should give enough to fill the boiler easily.

I understand you would want to fill the water tank if sterilising it with aquastar 2 but not if just descaling.

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scotjimland

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I'm not sure why it is necessary to fill the fresh water tank with the citric acid solution if the aim is just to descale the boiler. I bought 500g of citric acid from a home brew shop today and will dilute that with water. This should give enough to fill the boiler easily.

I understand you would want to fill the water tank if sterilising it with aquastar 2 but not if just descaling.

quite correct .. why I said 50lt I don't know... must be getting senile.. o_O

either that or it was a subliminal message from the Truma package .(that's my excuse anyway;))

Truma boiler is only 10lt .. so 500gm citric acid is more than enough .. mix up with about 15lt to give enough to flush to the taps,
 
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cazian

cazian

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Thanks for all your helpfull advice, went with putting 20litres water and 20 tablespoons citric acid, and left it for 8 hours. As you can't see inside the boiler don't know if it has worked, but it worked in the kettle.
 

DBK

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I found some advice issued by my MH manufacturer which said a 5% solution, specifically 1kg of citric acid in 20 litres of water left in for 24 hours.

I didn't have that much so I made up about 12 litres of 4% this morning and that is currently stewing in the boiler heated to 70C.

I also added the same mix to the kettle which was only lightly scaled but it had all been dissolved before it came up to the boil so I'm not planning to leave the mix in the boiler anything like 24 hours and will drain it this afternoon.

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Jaws

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I aint looked or searched for info so 'scuse question..
How on earth do you get it in the boiler ?
 

pappajohn

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I'd be very wary of using anything other than products approved by Truma.. ie Citric acid or Truma Aqustar 1+2 ..

Vinegar ..

from Truma information

Vinegar
Vinegar is produced by fermenting alcoholic liquids with acetic acid bacteria (Mycoderma aceti). Vinegar is a descaling agent due to its acid content, but it leaves behind an unpleasant taste which adheres to plastics and rubber and is very difficult to remove. Vinegar is not suitable for descaling drinking water systems in mobile homes, as it attacks rubber seals and even some metals.

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Thank Jim.
I need to descale the Alde wet heating system in my caravan as it had a leak and the previous owner only use tap water to top it up instead of an antifreeze/inhibitor/distilled water mix.
The pipework is about 50% blocked with limescale so the boiler overheats before the room is at temperature.
Vinegar is the fluid of choice but I need to research the corrosive effects of vinegar on aluminium as the whole system is aluminium.....your link simply says 'some metals'
 
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DBK

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I aint looked or searched for info so 'scuse question..
How on earth do you get it in the boiler ?
I drained the fresh water tank and boiler. Then added the mixture to the fresh water tank using a watering can. Then turn on water pump and open taps until air is driven out. I collected the water coming out of the taps in a jug and returned it to the fresh water tank with the watering can as I only made up 12 litres and I was worried the tank would run dry.

Flushing it all out afterwards was time consuming. I drained the boiler and fresh water tank, refilled it with fresh water and bled the system, drained and refilled again but the hot water still tasted a bit acidic. So I drained and refilled the boiler alone three more times and it now tastes OK.

Note mine's a Webasto so it might be easier or harder to flush it all out with different makes.
 

Jaws

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Yessss.. Do not want it in the whole system so will do as PJ says :)

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My cunning plan was to disconnect the input pipe at the pump fit a bit of flexible pipe and suck the citric acid into the pump and thus to the boiler. This should avoid any citric acid getting into the fresh water tank and thus avoid lots of flushing.
Last spring used white spirit vinegar and thought id flushed it all out. I hadn't and tea tasted terrible.
 

DBK

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Flushing the stuff out of the fresh water tank was very easy. It was flushing the boiler which was time consuming. Mine has a tap at the bottom of the fresh water tank so it is very easy to quickly empty it. Other installations might be different of course, I've heard on here about fresh water tanks which are quite awkward to drain.
 

jonandshell

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Mine has a Webasto and they recommend vinegar at a ratio of 1:2 with water.

The problem is you need quite a lot of vinegar so I'm going to see if I can buy some of the stuff chip shops pass of as vinegar as it should be cheaper in bulk. Chemically it will be the same - ascetic acid.

Get it from Carrefour!

30 cents a litre for white wine vinegar. We stocked up last time we went skiing.

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PeteH

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Thinking??. My pump is under the bed-box, disconnect outlet pipe, connect to Spare pump used for topping-up tank from aquaroll, put de-scaler in Aqua-roll and pump into boiler and leave?, sound like a plan?, drain using the (boiler) "dump" valve for cold snaps?.

Anyone see the flaws?

Pete
 

scotjimland

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Thinking??. My pump is under the bed-box, disconnect outlet pipe, connect to Spare pump used for topping-up tank from aquaroll, put de-scaler in Aqua-roll and pump into boiler and leave?, sound like a plan?, drain using the (boiler) "dump" valve for cold snaps?.

Anyone see the flaws?

Pete
if that's easier.. why not..

but I would also pump through to the hot taps and shower head,.. they can also get scaled up ..

Remove the cold feed pipe and funnel it in.

getting access to my boiler pipework would be a days work.. it's in the bottom of the wardrobe.. so filling by funnel isn't practical.. my fresh tank is accessible from a hatch in the floor.. so for me that's the easiest method ..
 
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