Cleaning Steam Humidifier Elements????

[moshmont]

I've gotta bunch of Vaporstream electric steam humidifiers using incaloy heating elements that get loaded up with scale in no time. What seems to be the best way of cleaning them? I've been using sulfamic acid (which seems to do well) but the manufacturer told me not to because it will eat away at the element. They tell me I should only use their citric base cleaner (which costs an arm & a leg).

After having these humidifiers for 5 years now, I just recently had to replace 5 elements out of about 48 of them, one of which was a blow out. How long is the typical life on this type of element? These are all 480 volt 18K elements.

Thanks!

[ckartson]

The scale alone will shorten the life of the elements. I scrape as much as possible then use weak muriatic acid and brush on to the remaining scale. If it is to bad you may want to increase flush rates or add softeners. Only for the humidifiers with heat elements though not the canister type that use the waters conductivity.

[cperk]

I've gotta bunch of Vaporstream electric steam humidifiers using incaloy heating elements that get loaded up with scale in no time. What seems to be the best way of cleaning them? I've been using sulfamic acid (which seems to do well) but the manufacturer told me not to because it will eat away at the element. They tell me I should only use their citric base cleaner (which costs an arm & a leg).

After having these humidifiers for 5 years now, I just recently had to replace 5 elements out of about 48 of them, one of which was a blow out. How long is the typical life on this type of element? These are all 480 volt 18K elements.

Thanks!

If they are resistive type heaters, and you have that many of them, I would look into getting water softeners for their water supply. We have some over five years old, on a reverse osmosis water treatment system, and have not had to clean a one. We have had a few elements go out, but that's a given.

[Control Man]

Get some CLR

http://www.jelmar.com/CLRbasic.htm

[ctcont]

Do not use a water softener it WILL make tour problem worse, we use honeywell true steam they reccomend the following
1. Use cold water unsoftened provide minimun of 10 micron filter oversize filter for best results even if the home has a water filter on it. Water must be 7-50 grains hard ph of 6.5-8
I use flo aide to clean myelements it costs about the same asHydrocloric,hydrofloric acid at your supplier

[ckartson]

Why would softener make it worse?

[bob_scheel]

I've gotta bunch of Vaporstream electric steam humidifiers using incaloy heating elements that get loaded up with scale in no time. What seems to be the best way of cleaning them? I've been using sulfamic acid (which seems to do well) but the manufacturer told me not to because it will eat away at the element. They tell me I should only use their citric base cleaner (which costs an arm & a leg).

After having these humidifiers for 5 years now, I just recently had to replace 5 elements out of about 48 of them, one of which was a blow out. How long is the typical life on this type of element? These are all 480 volt 18K elements.

Thanks!

VAporstream units have a setting for purging the tank. Depending on how hard your water is you may need to increase the frequency/time of this.