I had a patient who was retired Navy. I had trouble with mineral deposits in the water over years wanting to accumulate on the wall of the whirlpool. He told me in the Navy, they would
soak vinegar on the stainless steel overnight to get rid of salt/mineral accumulation. "all you got to do next morning is hose it off". Being a fairly large whirlpool, I don't know how many gallons of vinegar I used, soaking towels with it to make contact. The next morning I was met at the door by some not too happy fellow employees, the entire office smelled like you had been canning, making sauerkraut. It was awful. By the way, all you had to do was "hose it off". It looked brand new.