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Old 12-31-2020, 08:25 AM   #1
Mikendebbie
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Decalcify/descale kit for Suburban IW60 water heater

My unit is coming up on two years old and I need to perform a descale cleaning for the on-demand water heater. Just curious if anyone has done that and how did it go?

This is what I have discovered so far...I can't find a thread on the subject in this forum or several others. There are no youtube videos for the Suburban IW60. There are many videos for descaling a residential on-demand water heater, and it seems to be the same process...hook up some hoses to the IW60...turn the valves off near the water heater so that vinegar is not circulated thru the entire plumbing system...hook the hose to a small pump...put some vinegar in a 5 gal bucket...turn it on and let it circulate for 1 hour. Looks simple.

I have not yet taken all the junk out of my front compartment and removed the storage bulkhead to look at the back of my heater to see if Keystone plumbed it with the cut-off valves and accessory pipes to hook up the descale kit. If they did not prep it like that - I will have to do the work. Just curious if anyone else has looked or tried it and can say how Keystone plumbed it.

I emailed Airxcel Suburban to inquire how to buy the kit. She emailed me the instruction manual, but they do not sell the kit direct - you have to go thru a dealer (sound familiar?). She provided a link to find dealers in my area.

Now as for purchasing the kit - if you google the full kit name, part number for the kit or any part of the name - NOTHING comes up - which seems very strange. I did find lots of descale kits at Home Depot and Lowes ($120 - $150) - but not the Suburban kit. I then went to the website of some of the area dealers (including Camping World) and tried to search the kit to check prices and got NOTHING. I assume the generic kits available at Lowes and Home Depot are similar, except they will be missing the pipe adapters or something else that will send me back to the store to rummage in the bins to find.

The pic below shows the set up (or open up the attachment for a better view), and I have not looked at mine to see what exists and what I will have to add...just curious if anyone has already done this and how did it go. TIA.
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Old 12-31-2020, 08:37 AM   #2
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Ah! Your post made me do a double take. When I first saw the title, I read: Declassify / descale.... then I started reading your post and I kept reading "declassify"... How in the world do you "declassify" a water heater system? Then it dawned on me what you actually typed. I think I've had too much of this "political" stuff in my head lately!
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Old 12-31-2020, 10:00 AM   #3
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Looked it up in my Aggie spelling book, and it’s an acceptable spelling...it is close and it uses the same letters. Thankfully I passed my Aggie spelling class in my final semester.
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Old 12-31-2020, 04:08 PM   #4
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I would use a water softener. A water softener will reverse the scale buildup.
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Old 12-31-2020, 05:14 PM   #5
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You have a on demand water heater I didn’t sea this option when I ordered mine or did you have it installed after u got it been looking at these the wifieee likes long showers ???
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Old 12-31-2020, 07:07 PM   #6
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The tankless water heater came with our unit. We have a front bath floor plan with a full size bath tub. I gotta say - the on-demand water heater is great... love it!
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Old 01-21-2021, 09:12 PM   #7
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The pump does not have to be anything special. A $20 fountain pump from Lowes will work. You just need to figure out a way to get the plumbing to the water heater set up for continuous circulation. I would simply disconnect in & out water where you can and kluge some tubing so that the fountain pump pulls the vinegar solution out of the bucket, thru the heater and then back to the bucket. Fix up some sort of strainer of filter to catch any debris coming out of the heater so it does not get sucked out of the bucket and back into the heater. I have a Noritz NR50ODLP Outdoor Tankless Water Heater that I've done that with but I knew this going in so set it up for that without buying any special hardware from Noritz.



I'll bet this could be accomplished from the convenience center in someway using the bypass valve or simply the drain valve at the bottom of the heater and/or the T/P safety valve.
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