If I had a dime for every customer who proudly told me they put vinegar in their heads, & flushed it with fresh water, in order to prevent calcium building up in the sanitation hoses, I'd be retired now.
The truth is, despite their best efforts, I still find the sanitation hoses plugged & occluded with calcium build up.
Yesterday was one of those days. I hate these jobs and don't technically do them but for good customers I will occasionally make exceptions. In this case the customers hose was plugged with calcium and they had used vinegar religiously to prevent just such a situation.
As an experiment I dropped the head outlet elbow into straight vinegar and left it there to see if there was any change. I had done this before but never took pictures or placed the time in the vinegar into the photo..
11-SEP-2013
Straight Vinegar
In this case the calcium was submerged into 100% undiluted white vinegar. When putting vinegar into your head there is very little chance you will ever get 100% undiluted vinegar in your hoses. This means your situation will be MUCH less potent than this expirement was...
11-SEP-2013
Bowl, Elbow & Straight Vinegar
I filled the bowl enough to submerge half the elbow. I only submerged it half way because I wanted to see the before & after results..
11-SEP-2013
10:44 A.M
I then snapped a picture of the elbow to record the time..
11-SEP-2013
12:11 P.M.
Zero change...
11-SEP-2013
12:30 P.M.
Zero change...... Straight undiluted vinegar did SQUAT.
At this point I had to put the elbow back in so I broke some chunks out and let them sit in the bowl of vinegar.
11-SEP-2013
2:36 P.M.
OK I'd seen enough and quite frankly was sick and tired of the vinegar smell. Even 100% undiluted the vinegar did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the calcium..
My take on this, save your money and put it towards something that may actually do something. Snake oil? Urban myth? You decide.....
Please keep in mind that what you put into the head will pass most of the hose very quickly and where it sits in the low spots will be very, very diluted. This boat had religious use of vinegar and fresh water and the hose was plugged tight with calcium... Go figure.... (wink)
MAY-2006
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