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Possible treatments

The uric acid scale is often too thick for acid treatments to do much good, particularly hoses. You can probably clean the pump and valves with acid but you will have to use a strong acid solution or leave it for much longer with the weaker producs.

If you have no concerns about corrosion, use HCl, hydrochloric acid, muriatic acid- all the same thing. It is most easily obtained at Home Depot, Lowes or swimming pool supply shops and is sold as swimming pool acid. Dilute the strong acid 1:3 with water before use.

Don't use sulfuric acid, H2SO4, battery acid- all the same thing. It will not disolve the scale as the calcium sulfate salts produced are not soluable.

A somewhat safer product can be purchased at your grocery store: CLR (calcium, lime, rust) or Limeaway, or Rydlime. They may take longer but they will work faster if you heat them to 120 degrees or so. Leve the pump in a bucket of the stuff diluted 1:1 overnight and stir it up from time to time.

For hoses, the best thing is to remove them, beat them with a hammer to break up the scale, or replace them.

David

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