Clearing calcium build up in a pipe.

paultallett

paultallett

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Hi,

Our Jabsco manual toilet is getting harder to pump when it's set to the flush mode (drawing water) in. When you switch it to empty, the pump 'feel' goes back to normal.

I've striped the thing down and all appears to be as it should. I'm beginning to suspect that we have a restriction on the inlet pipe, due to the extra pressure only being felt in the flush mode.

The skin fitting is almost on the vee of the hull and was antifoulded / holes cleared as normal, so if we have a little critter blocking it, that might have to wait till she's lifted again.

In the mean time, is there a tried and tested method of clearing any build up inside the pipe from the skin fitting to the toilet? I have the flexible metal spring drain un-blocker which I will take to the boat next weekend and give it a good rod. I can feel a slight crispiness when I squeeze the inlet pipe where I can get to it.

It's not a deal breaker, the toilet still works, it's just a lot harder to pump and swmbo is moaning :)
 
paultallett said:
Hi,

Our Jabsco manual toilet is getting harder to pump when it's set to the flush mode (drawing water) in. When you switch it to empty, the pump 'feel' goes back to normal.

I've striped the thing down and all appears to be as it should. I'm beginning to suspect that we have a restriction on the inlet pipe, due to the extra pressure only being felt in the flush mode.

The skin fitting is almost on the vee of the hull and was antifoulded / holes cleared as normal, so if we have a little critter blocking it, that might have to wait till she's lifted again.

In the mean time, is there a tried and tested method of clearing any build up inside the pipe from the skin fitting to the toilet? I have the flexible metal spring drain un-blocker which I will take to the boat next weekend and give it a good rod. I can feel a slight crispiness when I squeeze the inlet pipe where I can get to it.

It's not a deal breaker, the toilet still works, it's just a lot harder to pump and swmbo is moaning :)
Click to expand...

Buy some cola, any sort will do, keep filling bowl & flushing until sure pipes are full of the stuff.
Close all seacocks & leave until next on boat. Open cocks & flush wirh water.
Cola is mildly acidic, so should descale.
 
I had to do that at Crinan when we'd had the boat for 2 days and took the pipe off (dead easy, just remember to close the seacock and have an appropriate bung ready just in case), battered lumps out of it .... literally, and removed the calcium. the 1.5" pipe was constricted to about 15mm!!.
 
Scale build up in the inlet pipe is not something I've come across.

Might be worth disconnecting inlet at toilet end and using a dinghy pump to blast any obstructions out through the sea cock.

Alternatively the change lever on the pump may not be opening the inlet flap sufficiently, ensure its well against its stops.
Failing that buy a service set and give the pump a birthday.
 
Never had a scaling issue with the inlet hose.

The outlet gets clogged with scale every couple of years [ full time liveaboard ].

I take it off find somewhere out of the way and whale the sh*t out of it against a tree or wall. I carry a piece of back up hose in case no tree or wall is to hand.
 
Sounds like somethings in the inlet pipe. Taking the pipe off is quite easy. If theres plenty of slack just cut the pipe of the seacock just above the metal work with a hack saw. If theres not enough room heat the pipe with a hot air gun to soften it a bit. Don't start yanking it about or trying to lever it off. Once its off you can rod it through with some wire etc. If you open the seacock carefully with the hose off, surprisingly little comes out as there is very little pressure. If you have ever pulled your speed log sensor in for cleaning, its less than that.
 
Flush some rydelime or brick cleaner down the toilet , brick cleaner in b and q is£8 for 5 litres , pour and pump twice so all of it doesn't end up in the river , pump on the closed lever not to draw sea water in.
 
kashurst said:
Sounds like somethings in the inlet pipe. Taking the pipe off is quite easy. If theres plenty of slack just cut the pipe of the seacock just above the metal work with a hack saw. If theres not enough room heat the pipe with a hot air gun to soften it a bit. Don't start yanking it about or trying to lever it off. Once its off you can rod it through with some wire etc. If you open the seacock carefully with the hose off, surprisingly little comes out as there is very little pressure. If you have ever pulled your speed log sensor in for cleaning, its less than that.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, no real slack in the pipe. Room is very tight so I'll have another look when I'm down this weekend to see if I can ease it off without too much aggression.
 
volvopaul said:
Flush some rydelime or brick cleaner down the toilet , brick cleaner in b and q is£8 for 5 litres , pour and pump twice so all of it doesn't end up in the river , pump on the closed lever not to draw sea water in.
Click to expand...

I had thought about removing the inlet pipe from the toilet, closing the seacock, removing as much water as I can from the pipe (model engine fuel pump) and then pouring brick cleaner on the pipe, leaving it 5 minutes, then reconnecting it back to the toilet and flushing it through.

I wondered if the brick cleaner would damage any of the metal in the seacock? I'm guessing not but didn't want to risk it.
 
volvopaul said:
Flush some rydelime or brick cleaner down the toilet , brick cleaner in b and q is£8 for 5 litres , pour and pump twice so all of it doesn't end up in the river , pump on the closed lever not to draw sea water in.
Click to expand...

Cola is cheaper.
Also less aggresive to any sea cocks & the environment its flushed into.
 
alant said:
S

"May be harmful to aquatic life", according to product data!

pH 1.4, so quite acidic.
Click to expand...

In fairness it says "may be harmful to aquatic life if released in large amounts". Which probaly applies to a lot of things used on boats.

It also says to only use a 10%-20% solution.
 
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