Cleaning sight glass on HVAC sea strainer

[Mr. River Rat]

I regularly clean the plastic basket in my Groco HVAC sea strainer. However, the sight glass is covered with deposits and a few barnacles.

I’m thinking of filling the sea strainer with Barnacle Buster then re-opening the sea cock, but keeping the systems off for about 18 hours so the BB soaks away the deposits. Any danger in doing this (I.e., leaving Barnacle Buster in the strainer this long)?

 

[Comodave]

We used BB on our main engines and A/Cs. We did not use the recirculating method but rather the sit and soak method. BB recommended about 6 to 8 hour soak so we went about 7 hours and it did make a drop in both engine temperatures afterwards. I would not go as long as 18 hours.

 

[ranger58sb]

We've use BB to clean the AC raw water system. Fill-and-soak, then rinse, then fill-and-soak again. Think each fill-and-soak session was a few hours. Didn't have the sea cock open during those, though.

-Chris

 

[Maerin]

I regularly use On & Off to clean the baskets and the inside surfaces of the strainer. Works great. Pour a half cup into the strainer, I use a small soft bristle brush with a long handle to brush the solution up onto the sides of the clear part to cover any shelling, let it sit for 20 minutes or so, then replace the basket and flush it out with the normal flow of the strainer. Been doing that for years to keep those clear parts clean.