Solar water heater cleaning steps, super practical removal and installation skills

Under what circumstances should we clean water heater scale?

The cleaning frequency of solar water heaters is greatly affected by the water quality in various places. Generally, it should be cleaned once at most about 3 years. In daily use, when you feel that the heating effect of the water heater is getting worse, especially when the amount of hot water is significantly reduced, it means that the increase in scale deposits is obvious and it needs to be cleaned up in time.

Solar water heater, 5 steps to clean scale.

It is not difficult to clean the water heater. After being familiar with the link, for those with strong hands-on ability, you can solve it by yourself. In your free time, you can experience the fun of DIY by yourself, which is very fulfilling.

Simply put, cleaning solar energy has the following 5 steps.

1. Remove the vacuum tube on the water heater.

2. Clean the residual scale in the pipe.

3. Remove the deposited scale in the insulation barrel.

4. Install solar vacuum heat collection tube.

5. Add water to check for leaks.

01 Disassemble the vacuum tube of the water heater and learn 6 skills

For first-time operators, carefulness is a must. There is hot water in the solar vacuum tube, and the glass is thin and vacuum. Safety must be the first priority. Follow the steps below to ensure success.

1. Preparations before cleaning up.

1. Choose a cloudy or not very hot weather, and have more than half a day of leisure time.

2. Unplug the power supply and drain all the hot water in the water heater. You can be careful not to add water a few days before cleaning.

3. If the water temperature of the water heater is high, after the hot water is discharged, you need to add some cold water, and then let it dry again to ensure that the remaining water temperature is not high, and to prevent the hot water from flowing out of the pipe during disassembly.

4. Prepare a pair of gloves with rubber on the inner layer. These gloves are non-slip, abrasion resistant, and not easy to hurt your hands. They are extremely easy to use and must not be used empty-handed.

5. Prepare a small plastic basin, add a few drops of kitchen detergent, and add a small half basin of clean water for use.

2. Detailed steps to disassemble the vacuum tube.

After completing the above solar cleaning preparations, we enter the formal disassembly process. This step is the first difficulty in cleaning, because solar energy, as a new energy source, is exposed to wind, sand and dust all the year round, and sometimes it is not easy to disassemble.

1. Take a waste towel and wipe the vacuum tube of the solar water heater to facilitate the next disassembly.

2. Put on gloves, take a bamboo or wooden sheet, and slide the dust-proof sealing ring of the upper end of the vacuum tube and the contact part of the solar thermal insulation barrel down about 30 cm.

3. When disassembling, starting from the outermost one of the solar energy, hold the upper middle part of the vacuum tube with both hands, apply a slight force, rotate the heat collection tube left and right, and gradually try to apply force until the vacuum tube can shake. 4. After being able to shake, hold the tube wall with both hands, push up while shaking, let the vacuum tube rotate and roll up, about 10 cm or more into the insulation barrel.

5. After the lower part of the vacuum tube is completely separated from the solar support, slightly lift the bottom of the vacuum tube, rotate it downwards, and pull out the vacuum tube slowly. The most difficult one is the first one. After removing one, you will feel it. The latter will not be difficult. In the same way, remove the remaining water heater vacuum tubes.

6. Put the index finger and middle finger into the tube hole of the insulation barrel, remove all the sealing rings of the tube opening, and complete the disassembly work.

02 Cleaning the scale, pay attention to 4 links

1. Flush the vacuum tube of the water heater.

After removing each solar tube, hold it horizontally, the nozzle is slightly higher, shake it upside down to pour out the scale inside, then pour in clean water, shake it again and rinse it several times, the scale inside will be almost flushed If there is a firmer scale, you can use a thin wooden stick to gently poke it.

2. Flush the heat preservation barrel of the water heater.

The scale in many insulation buckets is not attached, but is deposited on the bottom of the bucket, so that you can directly fill a large amount of cold water to rinse, so that the scale inside can flow out with the water.

Under the premise of paying attention to the toughness of the aluminum-plastic tube connected to the solar energy, you can shake the bracket to facilitate the complete discharge of scale. If the scale is too large and difficult to discharge, you can remove the insulation bucket, but after cleaning, you need to install brackets and pipes, which is time-consuming and laborious.

3. Clean the sealing ring of the nozzle of the water heater.

A good sealing ring is a key link to ensure no water leakage after installation, and must be carefully cleaned. Pay special attention to the groove in the middle of the outer wall of the sealing ring, which is the contact part with the nozzle of the insulation barrel. In addition, there is also the surface of the rubber inner ring, which is the contact sealing part with the outer wall of the vacuum tube glass, which needs to be cleaned.

Fourth, clean the top of the vacuum tube of the water heater.

After the scale is poured out of the vacuum tube, pay attention to carefully cleaning the outer wall of the vacuum tube about 20 cm at the top. This is the part where the sealing ring is tightly sealed. If there is residual scale, it will be easy to leak water.

03 Install the water heater vacuum tube, follow 5 steps

After cleaning the vacuum tube and sealing ring, enter the installation process.

1. Install the sealing ring. After installation, use a small towel to moisten a little detergent solution prepared at the beginning, and apply it to the sealing ring of the mouth of the insulation barrel to reduce friction during installation.

2. Hold the vacuum tube with both hands, with the mouth of the tube facing down, dip a little detergent solution, and control the excess water, then turn the mouth of the tube up, gently rotate and push it into the insulation barrel, and be careful not to let the seal ring of the tube slip off at this time .

3. The vacuum tube enters the barrel about 15 cm. After ensuring that there is enough space at the bottom of the glass tube, align it with the groove of the base of the bracket, gently rotate and then pull it down, so that the bottom of the vacuum tube is completely placed in the groove to ensure that it is installed in place.

Fourth, the same steps, after all the installation is completed, add water to stand for 20 minutes, check the leakage of each nozzle.

5. After ensuring that no water leaks, push back the sealing rings on the pipe one by one, and the installation work is completed.

04 Difficulty: Sealing ring installation, learn 2 finger installation method

During the entire installation process, many netizens reported that the installation of the sealing ring is the most difficult. Here we share the actual operating experience.

It is difficult to install the sealing ring. The problem is that the water heater's aperture is too small and the hands cannot be fully inserted. At this time, we can use the two adjacent holes to operate with both hands. After proficiency, it can usually be completed in ten seconds, and no more than 20 seconds at most.

The method is: use the index and middle fingers of one of the hands to clamp the sealing ring, extend it into the mouth of the insulation barrel, first buckle a little, and then press it. Put the other hand into the middle finger of the index finger from the adjacent barrel mouth, and press the buckle along the pressing position to both sides. Although it is not very convenient, it is still OK by feeling.

05 Summary: 3 successful skills that cannot be ignored

From the perspective of the entire cleaning, disassembly and installation process, cleaning solar energy is not difficult at all, but it requires careful and step-by-step operations, especially the following key links, which require special attention. If there is a mistake, it may bring certain losses.

1. Carefully protect the vacuum sealing nozzle at the bottom of the vacuum tube.

At the bottom of each collector tube, there is a sealing nozzle, which is very fragile. There must be enough space for installation and disassembly to avoid touching it. Once the sealing nozzle is broken, the tube will lose its vacuum, and the heating and heat preservation effect will be greatly reduced, and it needs to be replaced.

2. Don't ignore the lubricating effect of detergent.

When installing, apply a little detergent on the mouth of the nozzle, which has excellent lubrication effect. This saves time and effort during installation and is not easy to make mistakes.

Third, the key to preventing leakage, the cleaning of these three parts should not be sloppy.

Some people leaked water after installation, causing secondary rework. The problem lies in the key to water leakage. The following three places have not been cleaned properly. These three parts are: the inner wall surface of the sealing ring, the groove on the outer wall, and the outer wall of the top of the heat collecting tube. These three parts are cleaned well, and the raised scale impurities are treated cleanly, so that they can be sealed well, and water leakage is not easy to occur.