Removing F&E cistern for cleaning.

[chainsaw_masochist]

I have been trying to give a mate a hand with cleaning out his central heating system. Having drained the system I took a look in the F&E cistern where there is minimal access. It is pretty dirty and I would normally remove this from pipework and give a good manual clean-up. The problem is that because there is so little room the F&E pipe is connected into the base of the cistern rather than the sides. The tapping protrudes no more than a centimetre upwards into the cistern. (I would have thought that this could let a lot of debris pass through into the system).

Anyone know how this pipe can be removed from the cistern so that it can be properly cleaned? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Burnerman]

Any chance of getting in there with a wet vac? These shift lots of rusty deposits with minimum grief, and so long as the tank connector back nut isn't rusty iron there shouldn't be any need to disturb the tank itself.
John

 

[chainsaw_masochist]

Yes, that could be useful, John, though I am not sure that there is quite enough room for the hose. Good tip, though.