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PH tester

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MosesHomes
MosesHomes Member Posts: 7
in Strictly Steam
Can some one help me with finding a digital PH tester that can be screwed into my steam boiler. I could not find any on omega.com.

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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    PH Testing

    Most people use swimming pool test strips. The strips are simple and easy to use.

     You could try McMaster Carr  http://www.mcmaster.com/#   They have many types of strips including whose designed for boilers and also have other types of test equipment
  • Jean-David Beyer
    Jean-David Beyer Member Posts: 2,666
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    Why screw in?

    It sounds as though you want a continuous-reading measurement of boiler pH. I cannot imagine pH changes all than much unless you have a bad leak. I bought a small hand-held pH meter that I have yet to use on my boiler. My boiler is new and this will be the first winter it will experience. This meter needs to be calibrated before each use. I suppose you can use it all day with a single calibration; perhaps longer. While it is temperature compensated, I do not imagine it would like being exposed to 180F water, although it might be OK. My guess is that testing your boiler water once or twice a year would be enough.



    I tried using pH paper and got problematic results. The pH tested at about pH 3 coming out of the tap, even though the water does not taste sour. The water company say they supply the water between pH 7.2 and 7.6. Since that pH paper was over 10 years old, I thought it might have died on me, so I got some new, higher sensitivity pH paper (reads from pH 5.5 to 8.0) and got similar results. I then remembered my high-school chemistry and realized that water from the tap is unbuffered and that a small amount of disoslved CO2 in the water will make it acidic. I measured the hot (120F) water and the pH went to about pH6. My boiler also makes domestic hot water, so after it had run for a few weeks, I opened a purge valve and measured the pH there and it was about 7 on the pH paper. I imagine the reason was that heating the boiler water to 180F for the water heater drove off (most of) the CO2 that then got removed from the system by the air separator.



    The weather has started getting quite cold, though not yet freezing and it started heating a little this morning. So after the system has run a few weeks like this, I will use the pH meter (that is more accurate than the pH paper) and see what it thinks about all this.
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