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The White Vinegar Trick

Yahoo Message Number: 95261
After seven winters of Arizona water we noticed impaired flow on both the cold & hot side of the coach water system. I loaded 24 gal of white vinegar in the fresh water tank and over a two day period ran the vinegar through both sides of the system.
The way I did this was to run a short hose from the water bay hose bib into the fresh tank manual fill port, turned off the park water, opened the hot & cold valves on the bib and ran the water pump for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. Also ran the vinegar up into all the valves & outlets in the coach.
In the evening I turned off the pump and the bib valves, turned the park water back on and flushed out all the inside outlets so we could cook, wash etc. We repeated this "run the pump 5/10 minutes at a time"? routine for 2 days then purged the system and set things back to normal.
The vinegar was dumped out via the fresh tank dump valve and it left a large pile of white granules on the ground. Not only has our water flow come back to normal the efficiency of the Aqua Hot has improved remarkably. I believe this is due to the mineral buildup on the heat exchanger(s) being removed.
I plan now to do this once a year or so, 50 bucks of white vinegar is cheap maintenance.

Jim 07 Allure 31570

Re: The White Vinegar Trick

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 95265
Jim - Vinegar (5%) dissolves the calcium salts that clog the Hydro-Hot heat exchanger. I did things slightly differently. Link is here: http://www.muniac.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=204#Post204 Glad you're flowing again. Arizona water SUCKS!!!

Best - Scott

2006 Allure 430 40' #31349

(Bus-Stead Lemon) My Allure Page http://www.muniac.com/Allure%20Page.html

Re: The White Vinegar Trick

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 95268
Good report Scott. Used the method we did because I wanted to clean the whole system not just the Aqua Hot. With this approch no new equipment or plumbing changes were needed. I also exercised the mixer valve several times during this process.

Jim 07 Allure #31570
 

Re: The White Vinegar Trick

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 95269
Jim - I installed a water pressure gauge. That report is here: http://www.muniac.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=97#Post97 This allows me to keep track of the pressure drop between hot and cold water flows. It also allows monitoring other important aspects of the plumbing. Excessive pressure drop on hot indicates calcium salt build up in the Hydro-Hot heat exchanger. Bad water never helps this condition. The water in one campground in Torrey Utah made Arizona water look like distilled water. The water there was so hard you could walk on it. Jeannie got a skin rash from it too.

Best - Scott

2006 Allure 430 40' #31349

(Bus-Stead Lemon) My Allure Page http://www.muniac.com/Allure%20Page.html