Sous Vide vs. Hard Water

[Nate]

We have some hard water where I live and I don’t have a water softener.

I had noticed a little scale build up on my Anova after a few short runs for things like steak.... however.... I just finished my first "long" run of 72 hours using the circulator. Which makes sense since hot water seems to exasperate things.

I noticed after this last run there is a considerable scaly build up on it now. Since I would like to make this thing last longer than a year I want to make sure I properly care for it.

Typically I soak our faucets, shower heads, etc... in vinegar periodically of scale build up starts to get noticeable or creates use issues. I thought about filling a flower vase that holds the circulator quite well with vinegar, placing the circulator in it, running it at a low temp for a bit, then rinsing and drying.

Any thoughts, suggestions, advice, info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[pkadare]

According to the Anova forum community manager you're on the right track.

https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/cleaning-the-anova/12105

In another thread someone suggested adding salt to the water bath to avoid the scale.

https://community.anovaculinary.com/t/stopping-limescale/13172/8

[Nate]

Thank you!

I don’t think the salt truck actually works though.

[Steve B]

Maybe try contacting Anova and ask them if that stuff "CLR" calcium lyme rust would work.
They claim to clean coffee makers and shower heads with it.

[Nate]

it is probably not a rational feat but the chemical thing scares me for a good appliance like this.

I use CLR some on other things though.

[Steve B]

That’s why I suggested you contact them first.
Wouldn’t want to damage anything inside that puppy.

[Troutman]

Man that's some serious scaling. Our water is hard too, but thankfully not that hard. I like the vinegar idea for sure, should not really harm the circulator. Using CLR might be even better but I'd check that out first.

[Nate]

Thanks.

[Spinaker]

When I descale my Joule, I throw a mixture of 50/50 Vinegar and water into a large Ball Jar. I set it for 140 F and once it gets up too temp, its all done. I do let it run a little longer sometimes.

[Nate]

Glad to hear I’m thinking along the lines of someone else who is actually doing it. Thank you.

[IowaGirl]

I think a lot of people get confused about salt (sodium chloride) and how it is used to soften water. Whole-house water softeners use salt (sodium chloride) as a part of the softening process, and thus I think it's tempting to believe that adding salt directly to water will also soften the water. But that honestly doesn't work.

You can soften water by adding washing soda (sodium carbonate) -- it's often used to soften water for clothes washing. That makes the water alkaline (pH of around 10.5), however, and that's not such a good idea with aluminum and with food. Or you can use distilled or reverse osmosis water which is free of dissolved minerals. Or just use regular tap water and clean off the hard-water deposits from time to time.

Hard-water deposits dissolve nicely with vinegar (acetic acid) or citric acid. You could also use a proprietary coffee maker cleaner, but why buy yet another specialty item?

Citric acid has little or no odor, so if you don't like the smell of vinegar wafting around, it's a good alternative. You don't need much and it's fairly inexpensive. I'd mix 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of citric acid powder per 1 cup (250 mL) of water to descale. You can often find citric acid in the food canning section in grocery and hardware stores.

[Nate]

Thank you. The aroma is always the drawback of using vinegar. I will have to check into the citric powder!

[JimLinebarger]

I add distilled white vinegar to mine so it won't build up on the heating elements. I do this when canning also.

[Nate]

Awesome. Thank you.

[DWCowles]

Oh no! They have turn you into one of them! We’re doomed! 😂

[ComfortablyNumb]

You didn't know? He got a KBQ too. ;-)

[Nate]

You left me here to fend for myself! Dang good to hear from you my old friend!

[Spinaker]

He's back!!!!! Great to hear from you Darrell!

[Bighorn Dave]

You can go down several different rabbit trails to find a cure but my guess, and it is only a guess is you'll not get the results you are looking for. We can buy distilled water in gallon jugs for under a dollar. My suggestion is just stock up on distilled water
(the water can be reused also). Sure over time that can be expensive as it adds up, but so can buying a new circulator every so often based on usage. Based on the photo I imagine you already buy drinking water, maybe not.
We too live in a hard water area and the home we bought has a small filtering system designed for softening the water. Filters are about $120.00 a year and it's a very simple, small space requirement solution that works very well.

[IowaGirl]

Be aware that filtered water for drinking might be microbiologically and chemically safe to drink, but it isn't the same as distilled water. Conventional filters can remove large molecules such as pesticides and heavy metals, but they cannot remove hard-water minerals; the mineral ions are much too small to be filtered out.

[dubob]

IowaGirl. The wally world system I use is from Primo. Their system uses reverse osmosis, which, IAW the World Health Organization, "In fact, the reverse osmosis process removes 92-99% of beneficial calcium and magnesium." This also has some detrimental health side effects but does remove most of the elements contributing to the scale deposits we're talking about here. I haven't dug real deep into this, but the Primo filtered water appears to be better than tap water for this function.

[IowaGirl]

RO water can be comparable to distilled as long as it's the right kind of RO system and it is properly maintained. I agree RO is a type of filtration, but most of the time when people are talking about RO, they call it "RO" and not "filtration" -- just as I did in my earlier post. Conventional types of filtration are not in the same league or the same technology as RO.

[smokin fool]

When I was younger I remember my uncle using Muriatic Acid as a de-scaler to clean the water pump/pipes in the farm house.
Again its a chemical and may be to harsh for your application, try other suggestions first, if all else fails this could be your last resort.

[Nate]

Thanks

[fzxdoc]

Oh no! They have turn you into one of them! We’re doomed! 😂

Welcome back, DWCowles . We've missed you! I'm going to enjoy reading your posts again, just like old times. Hope all is well with you and that you're still giving that stickburner and all of your other BBQ toys a real workout.

Kathryn