Cleaning sanitary pipes with vinegar?

Ian_Edwards

Ian_Edwards

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 Feb 2002
Messages
2,227
Location
Aberdeen Scotland
Visit site
I bought some cleaning vinegar, 20% concentration, and I'm currently cleaning the waste pipes from the heads with it.
I first flushed the pipes with fresh water, then added cleaning vinegar and fresh water at approximately 50-50.
I'm unsure how long I should leave the acid in the system. It's been for about 1hr so far.
It's still bubbling away.
How long would you leave it?

All the pipes were replaced over the winter 20/21.
 
I have used hydrochloric acid at 10%, in the form of B&Q Brickcleaner. It did the trick, but the best answer is adequate flushing every time. Jabsco recommend a minimum of seven full strokes of the pump per metre of outlet hose.
 
I doubt there is anything in the typical toilet installation that will be attacked by vinegar. Dilute hydrochloric acid, considerably more active than acetic acid, does not attack copper alloys, stainless steel, plastics etc.
 
Ian_Edwards said:
I bought some cleaning vinegar, 20% concentration, and I'm currently cleaning the waste pipes from the heads with it.
I first flushed the pipes with fresh water, then added cleaning vinegar and fresh water at approximately 50-50.
I'm unsure how long I should leave the acid in the system. It's been for about 1hr so far.
It's still bubbling away.
How long would you leave it?

All the pipes were replaced over the winter 20/21.
Click to expand...
The acetic acid in vinegar is a weak acid. It will attack the carbonate deposits in the pipework but the reaction will be much slower than a strong acid such as hydrochloric acid.

If the pipes are heavily scaled you may need to repeat the process several times. As a rough guide 1 litre of the solution you are using could theotetically dissolve 83 grams of calcium carbonate, but the reaction will become progressively slower as the acid is neutralised.
Theoretically 1 litre of hydrochloric acid with a concentration of 10% w/v HCl will dissolve 137 g calcium carbonate.
vyv_cox said:
I doubt there is anything in the typical toilet installation that will be attacked by vinegar. Dilute hydrochloric acid, considerably more active than acetic acid, does not attack copper alloys, stainless steel, plastics etc.
Click to expand...
If it is fizzing it is attacking the carbonate deposits.
 
Hydrochloric acid is magic for sea toilets. Use at the concentration out of the supermarket 1L bottle of the stuff.
Please wear goggles and take care.
 
I wish people wouldn't refer to acids in this sense as strong or weak, the term is used to refer to its potential to be ionised in aqueous solution not its reactivity. In this case it is correct in that acetic acid is a weak acid and hydrochloric a strong one but it's nothing to do with the reactivity.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
I wish people wouldn't refer to acids in this sense as strong or weak, the term is used to refer to its potential to be ionised in aqueous solution not its reactivity. In this case it is correct in that acetic acid is a weak acid and hydrochloric a strong one but it's nothing to do with the reactivity.
Click to expand...
And in this case, it is also about whether the calcium salt of the acid is soluble. Calcium Chloride and Calcium acetate are both highly soluble in water, so Hydrochloric and Acetic acids both work. But Calcium Sulphate is highly insoluble (it's the same stuff as Gypsum as in wall boards!) so sulphuric acid - usually regarded as a very strong acid both in common parlance and in the sense @Fr J Hackett refers to - would be quite ineffective in removing calcium carbonate deposits. Nitric acid - another very strong acid - would be effective, but a) it might well attack even stainless steel (it's a very strong oxidizing agent as well as being an acid) and b) the fumes are even nastier than those of hydrochloric acid.
 
They are both still bubbling away, so I'm going to leave them until the morning.
They both electric system with a macerator pump and a non return valve. It's a simple rubber flap valve and it gets coated in " cacarious" deposits which makes them leak.
I'm hoping this treatment will cure that.
 
Ian_Edwards said:
They are both still bubbling away, so I'm going to leave them until the morning.
They both electric system with a macerator pump and a non return valve. It's a simple rubber flap valve and it gets coated in " cacarious" deposits which makes them leak.
I'm hoping this treatment will cure that.
Click to expand...
As far as I understand it with an electric heads you cannot other than by many flushes purge the pipework so the answer usually is to have fresh water flushing.
 
We now save post heads and normal ablution hand washing water in a deep bowl in the heads sink and use this for a regular fresh water flush.

Obviously not when at sea, but when alongside and on the hook.

Seems to work well so far.
 
NormanS said:
I have used hydrochloric acid at 10%, in the form of B&Q Brickcleaner. It did the trick, but the best answer is adequate flushing every time. Jabsco recommend a minimum of seven full strokes of the pump per metre of even full strokes of the metre, my wife has just fainted
Click to expand...
Seven full strokes of the metre? My wife has just fainted😳
 
I thought acid attacked all metals including brass, bronz, galvanised coatings etc. Put a two pence in vinegar overnight and it comes out a bright pink. ????
 
One way to clean flexible pipes is to remove them and use them to flog a hard surface, say concrete. The deposition breaks up fairly easily and you can flush out with fresh water.

Some acids will swell 'rubber' like the valve in the pump of a manual toilet.

Jonathan
 
shanemax said:
I thought acid attacked all metals including brass, bronz, galvanised coatings etc. Put a two pence in vinegar overnight and it comes out a bright pink. ????
Click to expand...

That is cos the acid has cleaned all the dirt and oxidation off, leaving the bare metal.

Same happens to a 2p put into Coca-Cola. That has acid-phosphoric IIRC-in it.
 
vyv_cox said:
Dilute HCl does not attack brass or bronze. It will definitely attack galvanising and zinc anodes.
Click to expand...
Not really true it depends on many things from aeration of the solution to the type of bronze but to a greater or lesser extent they will be attacked.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top