Built Up Scale/Calcium Deposits
If I had a dime for every customer who proudly told me they put vinegar in their heads, & flushed it with fresh water, in order to prevent scale/calcium building up in the sanitation hoses, I'd be retired now.
The truth is, despite their best efforts, I still find the sanitation hoses plugged & occluded with calcium build up.
Yesterday was one of those days. I hate these jobs and don't technically do them but for good customers I will occasionally make exceptions. In this case the customers hose was plugged with calcium.
As an experiment I dropped the head outlet elbow into straight vinegar and left it there to see if there was any change or softening of the scale. I had done this before but never took pictures or placed the phone-time, the piece spent in the vinegar, into the photo..
Straight Vinegar
This is the same exact brand I see on so many of my customers boats who "treat" their heads with vinegar.. Must be defective vinegar...
In this case the scale/calcium was submerged into 100% undiluted white vinegar. When putting vinegar into your head there is very little chance you will ever get 100% undiluted vinegar in your hoses. Some sources even suggest a 4-5 minute soak will prevent this build up...This vinegar was undiluted and means any vinegar you put into a head will be MUCH less potent than this experiment was...
Bowl, Elbow & Straight Vinegar
I filled the bowl enough to submerge half the elbow. I only submerged it half way because I wanted to see & poke at the before & after results..
10:44 A.M
I then snapped a picture of the elbow to record the time..
12:11 P.M.
Zero change...
12:30 P.M.
Zero change...... Straight undiluted vinegar did SQUAT.
At this point I had to put the elbow back in so I broke some chunks out and let them sit in the bowl of vinegar.
2:36 P.M.
OK I'd seen enough and quite frankly was sick and tired of the vinegar smell stinking up the boat. Even 100% undiluted the vinegar did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the calcium.. With the rubber gloves on it was still just as hard as stuff that had fallen out of the hose during removal. There was no detectable difference in the multi-hour vinegar soaked bits than the stuff right out of the hose...
My take on this? Save your money and put it towards something that may actually do something.
Snake oil? Urban myth? You decide.....
Please keep in mind that what you put into the head will pass most of the hose very quickly and where it sits in the low spots will be quite diluted unless you go broke buying five gallon pales of vinegar at a time....
Many of the boats I find like this have had religious use of vinegar and fresh water flushing yet the hoses are often plugged tight with calcium... Go figure.... (wink)
If I had a dime for every customer who proudly told me they put vinegar in their heads, & flushed it with fresh water, in order to prevent scale/calcium building up in the sanitation hoses, I'd be retired now.
The truth is, despite their best efforts, I still find the sanitation hoses plugged & occluded with calcium build up.
Yesterday was one of those days. I hate these jobs and don't technically do them but for good customers I will occasionally make exceptions. In this case the customers hose was plugged with calcium.
As an experiment I dropped the head outlet elbow into straight vinegar and left it there to see if there was any change or softening of the scale. I had done this before but never took pictures or placed the phone-time, the piece spent in the vinegar, into the photo..
Straight Vinegar
This is the same exact brand I see on so many of my customers boats who "treat" their heads with vinegar.. Must be defective vinegar...
In this case the scale/calcium was submerged into 100% undiluted white vinegar. When putting vinegar into your head there is very little chance you will ever get 100% undiluted vinegar in your hoses. Some sources even suggest a 4-5 minute soak will prevent this build up...This vinegar was undiluted and means any vinegar you put into a head will be MUCH less potent than this experiment was...
Bowl, Elbow & Straight Vinegar
I filled the bowl enough to submerge half the elbow. I only submerged it half way because I wanted to see & poke at the before & after results..
10:44 A.M
I then snapped a picture of the elbow to record the time..
12:11 P.M.
Zero change...
12:30 P.M.
Zero change...... Straight undiluted vinegar did SQUAT.
At this point I had to put the elbow back in so I broke some chunks out and let them sit in the bowl of vinegar.
2:36 P.M.
OK I'd seen enough and quite frankly was sick and tired of the vinegar smell stinking up the boat. Even 100% undiluted the vinegar did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the calcium.. With the rubber gloves on it was still just as hard as stuff that had fallen out of the hose during removal. There was no detectable difference in the multi-hour vinegar soaked bits than the stuff right out of the hose...
My take on this? Save your money and put it towards something that may actually do something.
Snake oil? Urban myth? You decide.....
Please keep in mind that what you put into the head will pass most of the hose very quickly and where it sits in the low spots will be quite diluted unless you go broke buying five gallon pales of vinegar at a time....
Many of the boats I find like this have had religious use of vinegar and fresh water flushing yet the hoses are often plugged tight with calcium... Go figure.... (wink)