Hammerhead descaler does it work and if so how to use

[Steve500dancer]

This past fall when I was winterizing my air conditioning I had a real hard time trying to get 2nd unit to get antifreeze through it. I am pretty sure that the system needs to be descaled.

I spoke to the guys at the cruise air booth at the Miami boat show and they were sure that I needed to Descale and highly recommended Hammerhead. I looked it up on line and could find nothing on the procedure for descaling.

Any information or better recommendations would be greatly appreciated.


Steve

 

[docofthebay]

I did my ACs and both engines last summer using Rydlyme. It worked great on both with much better water flow after cleaning.
It is a fairly simple process. You set up a system when you run a continuous loop current with direction of flow opposite normal direction. I had a 5 gallon plastic trash can with a live well pump installed in the bottom on the side. You pump out the solution into the normal AC drain lines and have it return into the bucket to start its journey again. I ran it for 4 hours. It does lots of foaming, bubbling and visible cleaning at first. My set up actually has two pumps so I did both engines at the same time, also for 4 hours.
On the engines I did the retrograde flow going into the hose where it connected into the exhaust, then ran backwards thru the entire raw water system exiting on the engine side of the impeller pump. This way it cleaned oil coolers, transmission coolers, aftercoolers and heat exchanger simultaneously. It will amaze you to see the crap that back flows out of your engine.
Took a couple of trips to Lowes to get the necessary tubing and PVC adapters to connect to the boat hoses.

 

[dpmulvey]

I did my ACs and both engines last summer using Rydlyme. It worked great on both with much better water flow after cleaning.
It is a fairly simple process. You set up a system when you run a continuous loop current with direction of flow opposite normal direction. I had a 5 gallon plastic trash can with a live well pump installed in the bottom on the side. You pump out the solution into the normal AC drain lines and have it return into the bucket to start its journey again. I ran it for 4 hours. It does lots of foaming, bubbling and visible cleaning at first. My set up actually has two pumps so I did both engines at the same time, also for 4 hours.
On the engines I did the retrograde flow going into the hose where it connected into the exhaust, then ran backwards thru the entire raw water system exiting on the engine side of the impeller pump. This way it cleaned oil coolers, transmission coolers, aftercoolers and heat exchanger simultaneously. It will amaze you to see the crap that back flows out of your engine.
Took a couple of trips to Lowes to get the necessary tubing and PVC adapters to connect to the boat hoses.

Pix?

The AC I sort of get. The engines, not so much.

 

[Steve500dancer]

I had both my engines done last spring including after coolers. This spring I just want to do the A/C. I have a pump for my A/C in my bilge that runs to a manifold that sends the water to all three A/C units. I have two discharge thru hulls. One of the discharges is starboard and comes from the salon 16,000 BTU unit. The other thru hull is port and it comes from both of the 9,000 BTU units in the state rooms. I don't get near the flow from the port side thru hull as I do starboard.

I played hell this past fall getting antifreeze to pump from my A/C pump through both state room units. I used a 5 gallon bucket filled with antifreeze and submerged the hose from the A/C pump in the bucket. It just wouldn't pump through the other units. I finally used a powerful shop vac at the thru hull port to help suck it through while we blocked off the thru hull starboard with a cork.

I am not real sure how to come from the thru hull back to the bilge to get it to continue to circulate like you did. I would assume that the manifold that branches off to the A/C units along with the lines and units all need a good cleaning.

Being that I am now on a fresh water lake, shouldn't need to do this again for some time. I know that the guy the owned the boat before me had problems with clogged lines in the past. My guess is that it still has crap in the lines and system from when he owned it and never maintained it.

Steve

 

[docofthebay]

I was able to get to the inside of the 2 AC discharge thru hulls from the inside of my cabin so I disconnected the hoses from the thru hulls and used the two outputs from my bucket ( remember I had two pumps) to connect to these and back flowed thru the whole system (even the pump) with the cleaner being discharged from the hose that usually connected to the sea strainer. I used about 40 feet of 3/4 ID see through hose in the making of my contraption.

dpmulvey, on the engines there is a 1.75 inch ( i think) inch hose that connects into the top of the metal housing where the exhaust hose leaves the engine. This where raw water is pumped into the exhaust flow. This is where I pumped the cleaning fluid in. I disconnected the same size hose from the output port of the raw water impeller pump ( don't/won't pump thru this pump) and this is where the cleaner comes out and back into the bucket to be recirculated. Your gas engines may be configured differently but should be close enough to figure it out.

 

[kaz911]

I like Triton Marine Products best (Engine or A/C Cleaner) - but Rydlyme and Barnacle Buster are good as well.

And Sea Flush have a "workable" solution for mounting on your strainers - so you can flush AC lines without a separate pump - or blow air through the system via a shopvac. (http://www.seaflush.com/)

 

[Captain Allen]

My mechanic used RydLyme on my generator heat exchanger and it did a great job. Lots of crap came out and the water flow increased threefold.

 

[Steve500dancer]

Today I did some research and ended up ordering a couple of gallons of Hammerhead Descaler along with the SeaFlush with the Snorkel. I watched several videos and talked to a few people and it seems pretty simple. (Famous last words of a boater)

I will be doing what they call pickling the lines, since I can't do a closed loop system with 3 heating and cooling units. The video shows blowing out the system and then making sure that snorkel is above the highest point of the A/C units and letting the lines fill up with the Descaler till it is flowing out the thru hulls then letting it sit for an hour or so.

I have a feeling that I didn't order enough Hammerhead Descaler. I don't think that 2 gallons will fill up all the lines and the coils for 3 units. I might have to order a couple more gallons tomorrow. I also think that it is going to take more then an hour to Descale the lines and units considering the guy that owned the boat before me was not much on maintenance and I pulled out tons of shells from the strainers when I bought the boat.

Any thoughts or advice on this would be much appreciated. I plan on doing it next weekend when I de winterize the water system and the A/C system.

Steve

 

[kaz911]

Today I did some research and ended up ordering a couple of gallons of Hammerhead Descaler along with the SeaFlush with the Snorkel. I watched several videos and talked to a few people and it seems pretty simple. (Famous last words of a boater)

I will be doing what they call pickling the lines, since I can't do a closed loop system with 3 heating and cooling units. The video shows blowing out the system and then making sure that snorkel is above the highest point of the A/C units and letting the lines fill up with the Descaler till it is flowing out the thru hulls then letting it sit for an hour or so.

I have a feeling that I didn't order enough Hammerhead Descaler. I don't think that 2 gallons will fill up all the lines and the coils for 3 units. I might have to order a couple more gallons tomorrow. I also think that it is going to take more then an hour to Descale the lines and units considering the guy that owned the boat before me was not much on maintenance and I pulled out tons of shells from the strainers when I bought the boat.

Any thoughts or advice on this would be much appreciated. I plan on doing it next weekend when I de winterize the water system and the A/C system.

Steve

Since you have 3 units why don't you turn it into a test? try some of the other products and give us feedback - I know it is selfish - but I would like to know how they compare. You can get barnacle buster in a 1 gl concentrate - that gives you 4 gallon of finished product - which is a bit smarter for shipping cost and storage. Or do they all "eat" from the same intake?

I just ordered the SeaFlush last week - and my idea is to FIRST blow it out - then fill it with normal water through the SeaFlush - and then measure how much water it takes before I get discharge water from the outlet. Then I know the quantity needed

 

[Steve500dancer]

They eat from the same intake. It actually has a manifold that feeds all three units and only two thru hulls for the three units. I find that to be a little odd.

Steve

 

[dpmulvey]

Since you have 3 units why don't you turn it into a test? try some of the other products and give us feedback - I know it is selfish - but I would like to know how they compare. You can get barnacle buster in a 1 gl concentrate - that gives you 4 gallon of finished product - which is a bit smarter for shipping cost and storage. Or do they all "eat" from the same intake?

I just ordered the SeaFlush last week - and my idea is to FIRST blow it out - then fill it with normal water through the SeaFlush - and then measure how much water it takes before I get discharge water from the outlet. Then I know the quantity needed

Pix and flow diagrams would help. I sincerely believe it can be done via reverse circulation method. Pickling will help a lot, but you are not going to gain the added advantage of friction over the surface area as you would w/ circulation.

 

[Steve500dancer]

Ok pics and diagrams you want...pix and diagrams you will get. This is courtesy of my friend at Sea Ray

Steve

 

[Steve500dancer]

Sea Flush system and Hammer Head Descaler update,

Today I used the Sea Flush to put the Hammerhead Descaler into the A/C system. Didn't go as well as planned. First problem was that the Sea Flush unit didn't want to fit snug into the strainer. Lots of lines above the strainer that made it tough to get it seated well. Second issue was that my strainer has a screw in top that they say will still seal if you use a paper towel between the Sea Flush and the strainer. Doesn't seal well enough. I had to keep putting pressure on the Sea Flush come.

I do think that I finally got the Hammerhead Descaler through the system. It took a buddy holding my shop vac tight against the starboard thru hull until it started sucking some of the Hammerhead out. Once it was sucking the Hammerhead through the port side, we stuck a cork in that thru hull and went port with the shop vac and while I was pouring the hammerhead in the Sea Flush my buddy kept the shop vac tight against the port thru hull till it was sucking the Hammerhead through the port thru hull.

I will say that when I opened up the shop vac it had about half a gallon of nasty looking water in And that was just from it being in the system for a few minutes. Hopefully when I go back tomorrow morning and flush the system out with water I will see a lot more nasty sludge. That is about the only way that I will know if I got I got it through the entire system.

The guys at Hammer Head said to leave it in over night and I would dissolve anything in the lines and increase water flow considerably.


Steve

 

[JC3]

Steve, Any way to get pictures of the Procedure? Thanks, JC

 

[JVM225]

I usually try to clean out my AC system as part of my winterization when I'm up on the hard. After cleaning out the strainer basket I do the following:

1 - Leave the seacock for the intake open.
2- Force fresh water through the discharge on the side of the hull. This is accomplished by attatching a hose coupler to the end of a garden hose with a short length of old hose on the other end of it. The short length of old hose has an outside diameter that fits snugly when forced in to the discharge.
3- Turn on the garden hose and let the fresh water run backwards through the system. I can look under the boat and watch the fresh water come out of the intake to see that it's nice and clear. It doesn't take much at all.
4 - Blow the system out with compressed air through the dishcharge.
5- Check and clean strainer a second time.
6- Using a 5 gallon container (the kind they winterize motors through the outdrive with) with a cheapo hand pump from Harbor Freight that is now attatched to that same short length of hose that I shove in the discharge side, I hand pump the pink antifreeze through the sytem in reverse until I see it pouring out of the intake.

It sound like a lot, but since I already have my portable compressor, and other winterizing supplies at the boat and in use, it really only takes about 5 mintes to do.

If for some reason I wanted to put a descaler or other chemical solution through the system and let it sit there for an hour or so, I could just replace that solution/chemical for the antifreeze I use in step 6, and then after letting it sit in the system for the required amount of time I would repeat the process(steps 1-6) when I'm done.

Blowing out the system isn't crucial. I only do it because my compressor is already there. Not blowing it out might mean you use a little more anti-freeze before you see it come out the same color it goes in.

Kepp in mind that I already have all of the supplies needed for my method and have been using them for several years. That being said, I don't know why I'd have to go out and spend $69 on what amounts to a plastic funnel and a couple of bungees, and then possibly slop up the interior of the boat more than necessary by pouring a chemical in to a plastic hose that sits inside a plastic funnel that may or may not seal properly against my strainer.

I also kind of like the idea thhe one poster has where he creates a loop system with a pump and a bucket and circulates his cleaning solution through the system. I could probably use my hand pump to accomplish this, or spring for a cheap electric pump and put htat inline somewhere.