Monday, May 11, 2015

Hard water deposits

Today's chore was attempting to dissolve the hard water deposits out of the washing machine.

So far, nothing is as good as toilet bowl cleaner.  10% muriatic acid cuts through the crud like nothing else.



I used to work in a welding shop and the third shift electricians would bootleg toilet bowl cleaner into the plant.  The Safety department would not allow anything more potent than Koolaid and that was just not going to cut it.  These guys took it as a point of pride that when they punched out that the welders could run non-stop for another 20 hours at a thousand welds per hour.  Each one of those welds passed upwards of 15,000 amps.

The only way to make that happen was to make metal-on-metal connections and to clamp the joints tightly together.  And that meant the crud had to go.

The washing machine is running better but it is still not 100%.  Tomorrow I will go to the hardware store and buy 28% muriatic acid, the kind used to etch concrete. I will cut it back to 10% and reuse the dispense bottle.

If you try this at home, remember: "Add the acid to the water the way you really oughter."  28% acid fumes so do it in a well ventilated place.

2 comments:

  1. Or you could try CLR, I've used that with pretty good success. But your way works too! And PLEASE do it safely!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Or you could try CLR, I've used that with pretty good success. But your way works too! And PLEASE do it safely!!!

    ReplyDelete

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