I am doing a rebuild on the Iberital (listed in another thread) and need to do some extreme descaling. What products are safe for copper besides citric acid? I did about 11ish tablespoons to 1.5 liters and got some, but its several millimeters thick on the lower half of the boiler. What can I use now that the entire boiler is out of the machine and easily flushable. CLR says not to use on copper, so thats out. What else can be safely used?

Thanks!

I know some people have used muriatic acid with good results.

Muriatic and sulphuric acid will do the job but you have to be very careful when using it. It also works best when hot so if you can, heat the acid up in a pot then soak the parts. You can also 'help' the scale along with a putty knife of flat blade screwdriver. Often, after a soak the scale loosens up and you can chip it out in chunks. You can get Muriatic acid at most home improvement stores and pool supply shops but be careful. Acid burns are not fun and the fumes can kill you if you are not in a ventilated location, dont stand over the pot and run a fan.

Saw that acid right next to the Lowes 5 gallon I bought for the job. What types of concentrations are we looking at here for the acid+water. Also, will it be safe enough to just soak the boiler in it? The build up is on the interior and the only access I have is through a 2 inch hole for the element.

Thanks again!

don't heat the muriatic acid... it works fast enough at room temp.

Well that did the job in just 2 hours. I did a solution of 1 gallon muriatic acid (33% hydrochloric) to 2.5 gallons water and BAM, that build up is gone and the boiler looks fantastic. Thanks for all the help!

From this:


To this:

good work! so is that with a heated solution or room temp?

The 2.5 gallons was hot tap water, not anything boiled or reheated at all. Worked out great, now I just have to find some gaskets.

just fyi, fwiw, etc... that is not heavy scaling.

I should have taken a pic of the drain or heat exchanger, there was half an inch covering the ports I had to gouge out...gross Could have been like my Faema though, the entire boiler was basically one big block of scale. Thank god that whole side of the boiler is removable on that guy so I could break it all free. I'm sure it could be worse though, just think of how it must have looked before the several 4 hour sessions of strong citric acid I ran through at operating temp. Life goes on and man that was so much faster