Heat Exchanger Descaling

Heat exchangers in many manufacturing facilities are crucial in everyday operations. When transferring heat, the heat exchanger, over a period of time will collect lime, scale and rust on the waterside of the exchanger.

If you intend to clean only the heat exchanger, you do not have to dismantle or remove the exchanger from your operations.

1. By-pass heat exchanger from operation.

2. Remove the existing water in the heat exchanger. This MUST be done, to ensure proper results.

3. Disconnect the water in/out connections from the exchanger.

4. Attach the necessary hoses to in/out connections on the exchanger to a circulating pump. Refer to chart on the downloadable PDF below for the recommended circulation time and the amount of Descaler to use.

5. We recommend that you circulate with water first to see if the system has any leaks, or if any unnecessary valves are not turned off. If you do have leaks, repair them before proceeding to the next step.

6. Circulate the Limescale Remover for 20 minutes, then turn off the circulation pump and let the Calcifier set for approximately 20 minutes. After the first 20 characteristic circulation times, check the pH of our Limescale Remover with a pH meter or pH strips. Before use, check the pH of our Limescale Remover, Which of our products? It lies between 0 and 1.15 depending on the brand. If the pH rises to about 3 or 3.5 pH after the first 20 minutes, add more of our Limescale Solvent to fill the pH to about 1. of this process
is allowed to continue throughout its duration. When the pH of our Descaling Agent remains the same, there should no longer be any scaling, so the heat exchanger should be clean. The exchanger must be free of limescale. The only way for the pH of our Limescale Solvent to increase is if it calcifies in the heat exchanger.

7. We recommend the procedures in 6 to effectively clean Heat Exchangers. The 20 minutes circulation and the 20 minutes saturating time are actually US Navy procedures, who use our products. We have increased the circulation time to speed up the cleaning. The Navy asked for 5-minute circulating time and 20 minutes saturating time, which we achieved. The reason for this procedure is to allow the Descaler to penetrate through tough scales while being saturated. This allows our Descaler to work more effectively in your heat exchanger. After 20 minutes of saturating, proceed with circulating to wash away all scale and debris.

8. You may be able to bypass the saturation technique to decrease cleaning time. This would allow for less down time in your plant. Please call us for more information.

9. Pump or remove the remaining Descaler into another container. If the Descaler still has a pH around 1-3 pH, use the Descaler for another cleaning.

10. After removing our Descaler from the heat exchanger, flush the exchanger with water to remove all debris and remaining Descaler. If you want to completely neutralize the heat exchanger, add sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to the water while circulating. Add a ratio of 1/2 pound of sodium bicarbonate to 25 gallons of water.

11. Once you have flushed the exchanger, disconnect the hoses from the circulating pump and circulate tank. Reconnect the water inlet and outlet to the heat exchanger.

Please download the instructions to view the chart that contains the proper amounts of Descaler to use and the recommended circulation times depending on what type of heat exchanger you have.