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Stopping rock / limescale in water heater: water softener?

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
Does yours smell sulphurous a couple of days later? We usually have to dump the water for a couple of weeks as smells so bad after treatment. Still better than £15k/yr water bill!
No, when we've finished the process(usually between 24/48 hrs) we run to waste for an hour, the solution goes a green colour and when its running pretty clear we just turn the divert valve back. Process needs repeating every 6/8 weeks
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
We have to lift the pump periodically and circulate it in oxalic acid as it gets pretty minging with iron deposits which affects flow rates.
Just googling oxalic acid crystals they are way cheaper than my boresaver but I wonder if they are one and the same, how do you buy it and how does it come ? Liquid,crystal,powder ? Our stuff comes as light green moist crystals.id be interested in trying it as a full flush. How do you find it cleans ? And both are naturally occurring substances
 

bigw

Member
Location
Scotland
Just googling oxalic acid crystals they are way cheaper than my boresaver but I wonder if they are one and the same, how do you buy it and how does it come ? Liquid,crystal,powder ? Our stuff comes as light green moist crystals.id be interested in trying it as a full flush. How do you find it cleans ? And both are naturally occurring substances

They come in crystals the same as boresaver, oxalic acid is white and the water usually ends up a red oxide colour. Our water goes green with boresaver too, oxalic acid is pretty good at cleaning up iron it comes from rhubarb if i remember correctly.
 

crashbox

Member
Livestock Farmer
Gave up with water softeners for the dairy hot water, went to Siliphos or Combiphos. Works well, needs topping up once or twice a year.
https://www.bes.co.uk/cistermiser-combimate-dual-fit-scale-reducer-17067/
Work so well we have them in the cheese and elsewhere on the farm. No power needed, low maintenance. We have seriously hard water, from our chalk borehole. Mains water into the cheese room is as bad, and also responds to this
Tried various things but not heard of this, sounds too good to be true!
I guess it will do volume no problem? At a guess we would use 1 to 1.5 m3 per day heated water.
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
They come in crystals the same as boresaver, oxalic acid is white and the water usually ends up a red oxide colour. Our water goes green with boresaver too, oxalic acid is pretty good at cleaning up iron it comes from rhubarb if i remember correctly.
I'm of a mind to order some oxalic acid and boresaver this week as we are due a clean, try the acid for 24 hrs and see if its cleaned up
 

sjt01

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Norfolk
Tried various things but not heard of this, sounds too good to be true!
I guess it will do volume no problem? At a guess we would use 1 to 1.5 m3 per day heated water.

According to the user guide, it will deliver 1 m3/hour at 1 bar pressure drop. It is on 15 mm pipework. I was very seceptical, thinking it was like the magnetic or electric coil scale reducers, but thought it worth a try, and it does really work.
This is the manufacturer's web site https://www.combimate.co.uk/, there is also Siliphos http://www.aquachemix.com/index.htm
 

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
Our borehole cleaning plant right to left, holding tank, pump,manganese cleaner,iron cleaner,softener,2x particle filters 10micron/5micron, uv filter. Water runs in through that order.
20201205_174258.jpg

Heck that's a lot of plant. Makes a new heater element look cheap to be honest. We have a hard borehole too, but no sludge issues that I'm aware of thankfully. Dad fitted it over 30 years ago. It goes for the heater in the dairy tank boiler every two or three years, and it's a bit rough on kettles. But luckily the robots mix the descale in their heater tanks, so they are spotless. Probably should get a UV on it though.
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

This webinar will be...
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