During the 12 years I was doing handyman work around the Richmond, Yorkshire area, I had plenty of light plumbing work to do caused by the hard water here. Ballcock and shower head replacement, toilet fill systems, tap washers and seat cutting were common. I did a couple of electric shower boiler replacements where the elements were too covered in scale to work properly or had burned out. Our kettle at home needs descaling every year for which I use citric acid.
Now we come to the holiday accomodation next door. It has no limescale prevention device and had a Triton electric shower installed about 23 years ago which has had regular use and no maintenance. I imagined it would be pretty much ready for some attention by now, so in this current interval between bookings I decided to use an endoscope to peep inside the shower boiler as a prelude to removal for descaling or replacement. There wasn't a crumb of limescale anywhere. I was astounded. To keep out of Mrs H's way for a bit, I removed the boiler anyway. The elements had a matt copper colour and looked in good condition; possibly fit for another 20 years.
My questions; why isn't it silted up? Where is the limescale? Is there some magic at work here?
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Why no limescale ? new
Why no limescale ? new