# Citric Acid manual boiler descale



## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

I have a tub of BB citric acid I'm planning of giving the Andreja boiler a good clear out.

I've removed the heating element and was planning on filling it up the boiler manually via this and leaving it for a few hours. Once it's done it's work I was simply going to flip it over and let the descaler just run out the bottom of the boiler then manually flush it out with clean water before screwing the heating element back in.

It there a better way to do this that avoids splashing citric acid all over the machine or me?

Any Advice?

Also the citric acid is from BB is several years old does this make a difference, does it go off with age.

How much citric acid to water? I was guessing 60g to 1 litre of water.


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## paul whu (Sep 25, 2014)

I empty the tank with the hot water tap having put the citric acid in via the water tank and letting the pump refill with the solution. Go to the Pub for an hour and flush it all out again. Seems to work but you have made me wonder whether maybe I do it all wrong.I am interested to hear how others perform a descale.


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

Hi Paul you're not wrong that's the standard way to descale a boiler.

Older machines can build up sludge / sediment at the bottom of the tank. What I'm doing is completely cleaning out the boiler of this and descaling at the same time.

By removing the boiler element it allows you a bigger access hole that you can completely drain the boiler.


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

Any other advice on flushing the boiler via the heating element?


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

I think your idea is sound. Would worry about getting citric acid on your self, Ive drunk the stuff in lemonade ; )

Do 3 heaped table spoons per litre and use near boiling water.


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## JayMac (Mar 28, 2015)

No reason to worry about the acid going off unless the container has been open, btw.


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

I wouldn't have thought Citric Acid crystals could go off. I've a large 1KG bag of it that I've been slowly using for the last 2 year and it's still working fine.

After all we use acids like vinegar to pickle stuff to keep it from going off.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

Have you completed your de-scale Clive ?


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

Haven't done it yet Frank. Big day over at my Mums with family today.


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

I've regularly descaled, but after an overnight soak in citric acid this is what came out of the boiler. Boiler now sparking clean like new copper.


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

I'd like to add that this is a white washing up bowl not my bidet/toilet.


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## DoubleShot (Apr 23, 2014)

urbanbumpkin said:


> I'd like to add that this is a white washing up bowl not my bidet/toilet.


Glad you've cleared that up!


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