Hard Water?

saxman251

I'm installing a wm ultra boiler in my home and have read in the IOM manual that the water hardness should be no more than 7 grains. I am told by my city's water works (Allentown, PA) that the hardness here is more like 12 or 13 grains. Should I even worry about this? It seems like overkill to install a water softener just for the boiler.

Empire_2

Be careful

You really want to go by the manufacturers reccomendations. Excessive scalling my shorten the life of the equipment.

hr

When bad things happen to good water

the boiler is, or should be a closed loop system. Really no need to add a softner.

I would however highly recommend you fill that boiler with water to their spec.

Either buy DI or DM water for the final fill, or consider a product like Rhomar which is designed to handle hardness, and, as importantly with aluminum heat exchangers, the PH.

Do everything you can to protect that investment.

Even a thin scale or hardness deposit on the high efficiency exchanger will reduce it's performance and ability to transfer heat from the fire side to the fluid.


You should be able to purchase deionized or demineralized water near you.

Look for the companies that bottle water for supermarket distribution.

RO water is another option, but reverse osmosis really strips alot from the water and you need to check the PH carefully.

To an extent the Rhomar will buffer the PH to a safe level, but it does have limitations.


Before any of this be sure you have flushed that system of pipe dopes, oils, solder flux residue, etc.
Even good water will turn nasty in those conditions



I'd recommend a multi metal hydronic cleaner for this. To my knowledge Rhomar may be the only company that has developed cleaners and conditioners specfically for these high tech pieces of equipment.

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saxman251

If I were to get the de-mineralized water, how would I get it into the system? The pH in my city's water falls within the acceptable parameters, so that's not a concern. Just the hardness. Would it be possible to just add the Rhomar to the final fill and not worry about de-mineralized water?

hr

Maybe

I'd still like to see you clean the system to take that risk from the picture.

You would need a pump to install the "hauled" water.

But first contact www.rhomarwater.com and ask them about the hardness range and how it effects their product. Your site water may be just fine with their product.

I know O2 scavangers can be added and boosted, possibly the same for the hardness component.

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