Loading…
3
Tried two different ways to clean a stubborn boiler tube bundle
Last job had a bundle that was caked with hard scale. First, I tried a standard chemical soak for about 8 hours, but it barely made a dent. Then I switched to a high-pressure water lance with a rotary head, and it cleared the same amount of scale in under an hour. The key was the spinning action getting into the corners the chemicals missed. It saved a full day of labor on that one unit. Anyone have a go-to method for really tough deposits like that?
4 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In4 Comments
emma4555mo ago
Wait, did you mean the chemicals sat for 8 hours or 8 days?
6
max_cooper215mo ago
The original post said eight hours, not days. A chemical soak for that long should have done more. Sometimes mechanical cleaning is just way faster on hard scale.
4
the_mia5mo ago
Disagree completely. Chemicals are the smarter long term play. That high pressure water just pushes scale around inside the system, can cause other problems later. A proper acid blend, left for a full 24 hours, would have dissolved it all from the inside out. @emma455 has a point about time, sometimes you need more than a single shift. Water blasting is a quick fix that looks good but doesn't treat the root cause. Seen it lead to leaks in older tubes from the pressure.
3