House water

[slingshot]

It seems that I’m getting a sediment or mineral plunging my shower sieves.Wondering if it’s the hot water tank sediment ?

[^v^Tinda wolf^v^]

I clean my tank out once every couple months. Edmonton water isn’t the best water I have had in my homes that’s for sure.

[CaberTosser]

Originally Posted by slingshot

It seems that I’m getting a sediment or mineral plunging my shower sieves.Wondering if it’s the hot water tank sediment ?

The sediment in the water heater is the sediment in suspension in the water, generally the accumulated sediment stays near the bottom of the tank because the hot outlet from the water heater is drawing from the top of the tank. Being the hot outlet is well away from the sediment sitting at the tank bottom its going to stay right where it is. Not all of the suspended sediments accumulate in the tank, some make it through to accumulate elsewhere, be that your aerators or your kettle. You can clean the showerheads and faucet aerators by unscrewing them and soaking them in vinegar, or a Lemi Shine (citrus-sourced citric acid powder) & hot water solution or CLR.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by CaberTosser

The sediment in the water heater is the sediment in suspension in the water, generally the accumulated sediment stays near the bottom of the tank because the hot outlet from the water heater is drawing from the top of the tank. Being the hot outlet is well away from the sediment sitting at the tank bottom its going to stay right where it is. Not all of the suspended sediments accumulate in the tank, some make it through to accumulate elsewhere, be that your aerators or your kettle. You can clean the showerheads and faucet aerators by unscrewing them and soaking them in vinegar, or a Lemi Shine (citrus-sourced citric acid powder) & hot water solution or CLR.

Are you saying citric acid can be used to clean aerators?

I use citric acid to make borscht sour. It's also known as ukrainian sour salt.

[CaberTosser]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

Are you saying citric acid can be used to clean aerators?

I use citric acid to make borscht sour. It's also known as ukrainian sour salt.

Yup, I use the Lemi Shine that I mentioned to clean our kettle or even to soak rust off of metal pipe fittings or tools, etc. Canadian Tire has it and its marketed as a 'dishwasher booster'. Its great for aerators or rust stains and/or the mineral build up in toilet bowl jet holes. I inventory two containers of it in my plumbing service van.

[slingshot]

Ok that’s what I figer but is there a way to clean the tank ?

[CaberTosser]

Hook up a hose to the drain and let’r rip for about 5 minutes. It works better with valves with a larger ID bigger than the factory supplies because the small diameter ones are easier to plug. Recently I swapped a customers factory plastic drain valve with a full port ball valve for a customer as their electric heater had accumulated enough sediment that it caused the lower element to burn out. Materials list for this is a 3/4” NPT ball valve, a 3/4” x 2.5” brass nipple, a 3/4” NPT x hose adaptor and a brass tethered hose cap.

Being that I had the electric element port available I was able to shop vac out 3/4 of the scale but it still called for a flush to get the bits that were physically difficult to get with my bent piece of 3/4” or 1” pex tubing I was using to get in there with. Once the new drain assembly is in just give that a blast every 6 months or so for 5 minutes.

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

Are you saying citric acid can be used to clean aerators?

I use citric acid to make borscht sour. It's also known as ukrainian sour salt.

I use it to descale the boiler of my espresso machine. The nice thing about citric acid is that it is not as hard on rubber components as vinegar.

I used to use it to clean our dishwasher, we had an Asko that had a diagnostic mode. You could select a function and leave it run indefinitely. I would toss in a couple tablespoons of citric acid, fill it with water, select the wash function and leave it to run for an hour or two... shiny clean. Unfortunately the new Bosch dishwasher doesn't have the same diagnostics.

ARG

[Supermag]

What do you make of this, Caber?

Last week, I had a lot of debris floating in the tub when I went to fill it up. I thought the tub was dirty so I drained it, cleaned it and tried again. Same thing. Looked like it might be scale. The other thing I noticed is that the water was much hotter at colder settings than it usually is and when i turn it all the way to hot I have maybe half the flow I usually do. I drained my tank and didn't really see much coming out and didn't find any more floaties when I ran the tub. The flow is still low on full hot.

My tank is from 2002 so it is on my list of things to replace anyway but it seems like the issue is with the shower valve. What do you think?

[LeroyvdH]

I for one did not know about Lemi shine. Good to know.. Thanks Caber for the info. We need to have you have a sticky, Hence the Ask a plumber
Leroy

[Big Grey Wolf]

A few years back a progressive mayor of Edmonton (Jan Rhymer) thought she would save the city a couple $$ by reducing water softning in water treatment plants. Thus now we suffer with hard water in humidifiers and hot water tanks.

[CaberTosser]

Originally Posted by Supermag

What do you make of this, Caber?

Last week, I had a lot of debris floating in the tub when I went to fill it up. I thought the tub was dirty so I drained it, cleaned it and tried again. Same thing. Looked like it might be scale. The other thing I noticed is that the water was much hotter at colder settings than it usually is and when i turn it all the way to hot I have maybe half the flow I usually do. I drained my tank and didn't really see much coming out and didn't find any more floaties when I ran the tub. The flow is still low on full hot.

My tank is from 2002 so it is on my list of things to replace anyway but it seems like the issue is with the shower valve. What do you think?

There was a run of water heaters that had poor quality plastic dip tubes, the plastic would disintegrate and cause all manner of issues by getting stuck in faucet cartridges and causing leaks or simply the unsightly debris coming out. I think your tank might fall into that age range. That could explain your low flow but it would cause an opposite effect in terms of the temperature you'd be getting (the temp would be lower as the cold water would not be introduced at the bottom of the tank, the flow would take the path of least resistance and only slightly mix with the hot water in the tank bypassing most of the volume of hot water within the heater )

[Supermag]

I think I'm going to remove the shower valve and check it out. I bet I'm getting half the usual flow on full hot. Cheap to replace anyway. My tank is from 2002 so it's probably about time for that too.

[hayseed]

Caber, how do use that dishwasher booster to clean toilet hole jet holes??
Just dump some in the tank ???

[Flight01]

Originally Posted by Supermag

I think I'm going to remove the shower valve and check it out. I bet I'm getting half the usual flow on full hot. Cheap to replace anyway. My tank is from 2002 so it's probably about time for that too.

2002? Yep. She’s done good work for you . Time to replace her. My last one was 16 years old. Depends on the amount of throughput and the hardness in that water. No shame in changing it out, maybe start looking for deals now.

[Sundancefisher]

We had sediment and a smell to the water a few years back.

Then the neighbors water main exploded. Then neighbor on the corner. Then the city came out.

Long story short we all had leaking water mains cause they never installed cathodic protection on the pipes. Our leak also sucked back in crap from the holes.

New water main later and sediment was gone.

We also experienced a drop in water pressure.

So be careful. It cost neighbors and I between $2800 and $14000 to fix.

[CaberTosser]

Originally Posted by hayseed

Caber, how do use that dishwasher booster to clean toilet hole jet holes??
Just dump some in the tank ???

The main jet hole in the bottom of the bowl is generally the one to scale up, just dump a bunch in the bowl and tape the toilet seat down so it can work for as long as possible. Hopefully you have a second bathroom

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by CaberTosser

The main jet hole in the bottom of the bowl is generally the one to scale up, just dump a bunch in the bowl and tape the toilet seat down so it can work for as long as possible. Hopefully you have a second bathroom

Roger 4 .