Side arm heat exchanger plugged up

[sam-tip]

Has anyone seen this.  My side arm heat exchanger for domestic hot water was getting plugged up with mineral deposits.  The hot water was not freely flowing into the water heater.  I added a very small taco 006 pump and now forcing the water through the heat exchanger.  Now the entire tank is full of hot water.

Figured it out after a cold shower and the backup instant on water heater did not turn on.  My tank is a 55 gallon electric.  But the electric is not connected.

Doug

[r.man]

I have seen it three times, once the hw outlet was blocked with a white lime deposit, once with a rust/grit deposit and once with a blocked galvanized fitting. All three had very little hot water and the pipe for potable water was not hot. I am recommending to these people that they blow water out the drain at least once a year to clear any debris that may have built up. On the one I just worked on I also added a shut off valve on the top potable circulation pipe to avoid backfeeding when blowing the tank and to stop convection losses when using electric in the summer.

[Randy88]

Every time I have to shut down the system for something, which hasn't been many, I take the sidearm off and run the cleaner through it, can't recall the name right now, maybe muric acid or something like that, plumbers use it a lot, and it cleans it right out, back to brand new, not sure about stainless steel or anything but copper though.   

[r.man]

I have inspected 4 sidearms after they were in use for varying years, 8, 8, 10 and 13 and none of them had any amount of build up in them. Two were on systems that had tank problems and two were being removed because the new owner didn't want wood heat. All were home made from copper and all were in use within a 5 mile radius.

[superwd6]

Mine plugged  so now I drain water out of the tank every few months to flush it. Water heaters tell you to drain one pail every month in the owners manual ;)