Just cleaned/flushed my plate heat exchanger

[Timbercreek]

Wow, what a project.
With the warm temps today, and cold and wind forecast tomm, i figured today was the day.
Bought a gallon of hercules sizzle.
Scary stuff. Hydrochloric acid basically.
Made up a bucket, 4 gallons cold water, hooked a pump up to the boiler drains on my.loop, isolated the thing, and went to town. After priming issues, i added sizzle once we were flowing.
Flushed each side of the plate for about a hour.
Noticed more bubbling on the oil side, less contamination to solution,
Wood side made foam.on bucket, solution got nasty.
Can notice a huge difference in flow.on oil side, and thats only a 6ft loop.
Wood side hard to tell, but temps seem alot better, house trying to reheat was able to pull owb temp down.
That hasnt happened in a while.
Cant wait to see what.temps.do.tommorow, wind is puffin up already
If you have never done a.flush, i recomend it.
Im thinking every 3 yrs i will probably do it. Maybe for a shorter duration.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

The sizzle stuff is pretty much just a jug of muratic acid. Might be watered down a bit more, MSDS says it's 20-25% acid, where some of the muriatic acid sold is about 30%

 

[rancher2]

I run Y strainer's on the intake of my heat exchanger haven't had to flush them in 10 year's they have been in. I clean the strainer's once a year. They usually need it.

 

[Timbercreek]

Rancher, i run those as well, but they wont help with limescale.
Limescale will still build up on the plates coating them hindering performance.
May not be affecting you yet, but its there.
My system has had a rough life, i wont deny that, but no system is maintenance free.

 

[rancher2]

Timbercreek I watch the quality I add to the Garn. My well water is bad. When I have needed to add water to the Garn I buy it from a water distillery haul it home in a tank and add it. My system is closed on the other side of the heat exchangers. So far in 10 years I have had zero lime build up. My system holds around 3,000 gallons of water that I heat up and then pull the heat out of it. I usually add 200 gallon every 3 to 4 years. If I would have tried to use my well water in this system I would have the same problem you do. Our well water is very hard and has a lot of iron.

 

[Timbercreek]

Wow. U spoil it. Distilled water

 

[rancher2]

The guy that owns the company has many patents on equipment and they have a factory making equipment. Next door to the factory one of his sons runs a distiller and a water business I have know them for around 30 years as we have always bought our drinking water from them and several of my friends have bought distiller's from them. Know one of his sons is doing water jetting cutting and making beer making equipment just down the street in another factory.