Chiller cleaning advice.

[illuminum]

I have an old chiller that I want to hook up to my new tank but was wondering how people go about cleaning used chillers. Is anything really necessary other than flushing the lines with some water?

 

[d2mini]

I fill up a bucket with ro water and vinegar and let it run that through itself for a few hours.
You may need to dump the bucket and refill once or twice if its real nasty.

 

[jda]

I use a bucket of water and some muratic acid.

 

[d2mini]

jda, how much acid do you use per gallon of water?

 

[jda]

Typically it depends on how much calcium based material that I want to melt. In this case, I will kinda swag it, but probably close to 15:1 - maybe 3 gallons of water and 1/5 to 1/4 gallon of muratic. 20:1 will do for less dirty stuff. If it is REALLY nasty stuff like covered in coralline, then 10:1.

I think that I read somewhere that titanium (assuming that your exchanger is titanium), is very resistant to HCL under 27-28%, so a 15:1 of the 20 baum 31% stuff from Lowes or Home Depot is plenty safe.

I will also leave that solution around and clean a bunch of other pumps and stuff too... no reason to waste it.

 

[MikeTR]

Give the condenser (radiator) a good cleaning as well with the vacuum and a brush attachment. Don't bend the fins.

 

[d2mini]

Typically it depends on how much calcium based material that I want to melt. In this case, I will kinda swag it, but probably close to 15:1 - maybe 3 gallons of water and 1/5 to 1/4 gallon of muratic. 20:1 will do for less dirty stuff. If it is REALLY nasty stuff like covered in coralline, then 10:1.

I think that I read somewhere that titanium (assuming that your exchanger is titanium), is very resistant to HCL under 27-28%, so a 15:1 of the 20 baum 31% stuff from Lowes or Home Depot is plenty safe.

I will also leave that solution around and clean a bunch of other pumps and stuff too... no reason to waste it.

Good info, thanks.
I'll try this next time. Will probably do a better/quicker job.

 

[Chris Mills]

I use a Home Depot 5 gallon bucket and fill it with a mix of water and vinegar. Cleans it out well that way.

 

[BlakDuc]

Old thread revival. Any harm with using straight vinegar? Thanks.

 

[d2mini]

Old thread revival. Any harm with using straight vinegar? Thanks.

Nope.

 

[BlakDuc]

Cool, thanks!