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Head piping


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I am aware that conventional wisdom tells us to use muriatic/hydrochloric acid to free head piping from calcium buildup.  I was wondering if Coca Cola would work just as well.  Anyone tried it?

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Don’t use those acids on an alloy head! It’s ok on cast iron and copper tubing. I prefer phosphoric acid myself. Less dangerous, and work s great. Never tried coke, might work, but I’d imagine very slowly.

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Coke has Phosphoric acid added, but as IT says, it is a very week solution. It is also not a good acid for dissolving Calcium. In fact, it can make things worse. The formula for Phosphoric Acid is H3PO4. Without getting to complicated, after the acid as reacted with the calcium, there is a spare Phosphate ion left to roam around and that combines with a Calcium Ion to form Calcium Phosphate which is insoluble.

       For Calcium scale, you need acids that are high in Hydrogen Ions. Hydrochloric (muriatic) Acid is best for disolving scale, Sulfuric acid second best. But great care must be taken with both these Acids. They are both very strong when concentrated and can cause severe burns and damage eyes. They both corrode metals. A concentration of around 10% is all that is needed.

        Oxalic Acid is another good one to try and it is the best for removing Rust stains as it is also called a chelating acid.
Oxalic Acid can be bought in a white crystal form from most hardware stores as it is used for cleaning timber.

      CLR uses Sulfamic acid, which also works and is much safer to use. CLR comes with a concentration of about 8%.
      If you want a more friendly acid for the environment and yourself, try either Acetic Acid(white vinegar) or Citric Acid.
      Citric Acid can be bought from Hardware stores as a white crystaline poweder sold as a concrete surface etch/cleaner.
But these last two are weak and take a lot longer to work.

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How well does it work IT?
I think it tends to get used in many various such cleaning products because it is safe for the environment and safe should you get it on your skin. Oxalic acid is better, but it is toxic to us. And for hydrochloric acid, even in a very weak solution, I doubt it would be safe enough to apply.

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i recall in a previous boat that had an electrosan treatment unit installed that the

manufacturer recommended using Muriatic acid at about 10% mix, soaked for an hour then flushed

out, seemed to do the job, never had any toilet blockage issues

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Soooo, phosphoric acid is the consensus then? Or not?

Do you dilute? If so to what percentage?

And do you just flush it through the entire toilet system or do you unhook hoses and only do them (hope not, PITA)?

And how often do you use it?

Do you flush through or let it stand in the pipes for xxx time?

 

Sorry, might be dumb questions  :roll:

 

I built a plywood holding tank with about a million coats of epoxy on it last year. Might be exagerating on the number of coats ;-) . Works great, I'd never thought much about the calcium build up though. I have the standard jabsco toilet.

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KM, I just used epoxy coats, nothing else. I saw some things John Wellsford had written about making these and he reckoned just epoxy was fine.

I was going to put a removable lid on it but in the end I sealed it all up. Couldn't stand the thought of leaks - waste or smell! Can't see inside at all!!

I have relatively straight inlet & outlet hoses to the tank so should be (yeah right) simple to clear any blockages without disassembling everything.

I slanted the bottom of the tank toward the outlet pipe so (hopefully) it empties completely when flushed with fresh water. Which I do every time I'm back in the slip.

Worst comes to worst - i build a new one from scrap plywood again in 5 years or so.........or slice the top off with a skilsaw or on the table saw, clean it up and epoxy it back together.

 

So far, I'm very pleased.

I only built one myself as the space was small and awkward and I would have only got a 15L version of the plastic ones into the space. I now have 32L capacity.

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Hoping you find big enough, mine at 30L, wishing it was bigger.Really only for emergency use anyway. Big advocate for a level gauge- you really need to know the level.Bought an Amazon portable,thru plastic,etc but while works on the kettle no good on tank.

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Vic - because I can't 'see' the tank level, I'm going to work out how many pumps to a full tank  :) Will do this in spring when I next have at least a 3-4 day trip. That way I can get a rough idea of toilet visits per tank - at least on average anyway.

Everyone on board has to write down number of pumps each time it's used - hopefully I can work out roughly when it's getting close to full that way. 

 

Careful eye on the vent overflowing........... ;-)  Cabin boys task, that..........

 

Might also be a sh:)storm.............. :wtf:

 

I normally sail solo or 2 up. Rarely more than that, so with 'judicious' use, 32L should be fine. Ain't got more room for a larger tank unless I do major surgery and I'm not going to do that.

 

And KM - hopefully my novice tank building doesn't give you a false sense of security!

Before building it, I did talk to lottsa people and google was my friend.

As was Brian (a plug for Burnsco here) at Burnsco who's advice was brilliant. Staff got a dozen beer as reward.

Also, a mate built one out of ply with only epoxy on it and it has happily worked for around 7 years now with no issues - and they use the boat a lot.

 

Cheers.

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Remember in theory the vent should be as big as the inlet.

This allows air to flow in and out through the same hole which let's things and stuff work right and apparently let's micro things do their stuff. (in a septic tank anyway but in a yacht probably does not sit long enough to let them do Thier stuff)

Well designed waste tanks will not smell.

However in a yacht a 38mm vent pipe probably is not what most people are willing to do.

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Vic - because I can't 'see' the tank level, I'm going to work out how many pumps to a full tank   :) Will do this in spring when I next have at least a 3-4 day trip. That way I can get a rough idea of toilet visits per tank - at least on average anyway.

Everyone on board has to write down number of pumps each time it's used - hopefully I can work out roughly when it's getting close to full that way. 

 

If you want to "double" the tank capacity, have a separate bin for loo paper. 

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One of the most important things with holding tanks is to lose the wire mesh from the breather vent.  If you have repeated overfill "events", bog paper does a papier mache trick and blocks the vent, creating the ultimate shitstorm.  How do I know that?

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I reconditioned head and holding tank on my boat a couple of years ago. Used Barnacle Buster to descale the disassembled parts of the head and to loosen heavy scale from plastic holding tank which then flaked off with a few light taps on the outside. BB is expensive but works a treat. You can reuse the solution several times by decanting to remove the sludge but obviously it’s concentration and hence effectiveness diminishes. Sanitary pipes were so heavily scaled that I had to remove them and replace with a combination of domestic PVC sanitary pipes and elbows and rigid hose bought from Burnsco. Like KM, it was an installation within a shoebox!

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