Gas heater flush

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bbobandannie
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Gas heater flush

Postby bbobandannie » Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:13 pm

Just bought a house with an old looking tankless propane water heater. It heats up fine but the flow is weak. Its marked up as an 11L boiler but, after measuring the flow from various points, one directly from the boiler outlet, the best i can get is about 5liters a minute. Were in a particularly hard water area and i suspect a limescale build up. Is it possible to descale these boilers?

casita-bonita
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Re: Gas heater flush

Postby casita-bonita » Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:28 pm

The flow rate is very dependant on how much the water temp needs to be, so 11l is probably measure on some favourable inlet water temperature. This time of year the input water is pretty cold so you'll see a much lower flow rate for a given tap temperature than you will in the summer

We have a err, b***** cant recall the make right now. It's been in for 11 years and still works like a charm. I do havwe cal filters in my water supply line, and i flush the heater every year with a product called descal.

I hear that you can get a plumber in to do it for you, at a price.
Regards

Bob

bbobandannie
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Re: Gas heater flush

Postby bbobandannie » Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:47 pm

Cheers Bob, i think i understand the link between the optimum flow rate and delivery temp but it seems a big drop to less than half. Almost every isolation valve in the house is scaled to hell so i guess i will contact a plumber for a flush, and maybe an in line descaler like yours. Thanks for the advice.
Bob

casita-bonita
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Re: Gas heater flush

Postby casita-bonita » Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:03 pm

Been a power cut evening, grrrrrr

It simple to flush the heater, or even your entire house. What i do is simple, although it took a few years for tje penny to drop..

Turn off your water pump, or supply if you don't have a pump.

Remove the cal filter cartridge fom the filter body. If you don't have any inline filters they are cheap to buy and easybto fit.

Open a hot tap somewhere in the house.

Half fill the filter bowl with descal.

Turn the water pump back on.

When dirty water comes out of the hot tap, turn the tap off.

Leave for 10 minutes or so

Turn hot tap back on and run until clean water comes out.

Replace cal filter cartridge.

Job done.

You can of course repeat with other hot and cold taps to decal the pipes if you feel the need/have time.
Regards

Bob

bbobandannie
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Re: Gas heater flush

Postby bbobandannie » Thu Dec 19, 2019 10:50 am

Bob, Thanks again. we dont have a pup but good pressure fro town water supply. I guess the first step is to fit a filter unit into the supply line. Anther question though, will a descale filter unit reduce the supply pressure?

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Enrique
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Re: Gas heater flush

Postby Enrique » Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:02 am

Hi,
I'm guessing you have done the basics.......changing the tap filters............. :?:
All my best learning experiences start with a problem I need to solve.

casita-bonita
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Re: Gas heater flush

Postby casita-bonita » Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:09 am

bbobandannie wrote:Bob, Thanks again. we dont have a pup but good pressure fro town water supply. I guess the first step is to fit a filter unit into the supply line. Anther question though, will a descale filter unit reduce the supply pressure?

Doesnt appear to do so significantly, and i have two cal filters and a carbon filter in line after my pump. The cal filter cartridges are full of loosly packed crystals and shouldn't offer much resistance to water flow.

You could always fit the filter housing and not insert a cartridge using it simply as a means to inject descal into the system. They only cost 10-15euros and a couple of pipe fittings.
Regards

Bob

bbobandannie
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Posts: 191
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2015 8:29 am
Location: Ardales, Andalucia

Re: Gas heater flush

Postby bbobandannie » Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:25 am

Brilliant idea, will get straight onto it


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