PH testing

ChrisJ

What is the easiest way to check the PH of your boiler water?  Most of the strips I find seem to be for urine and saliva, will they work with water?





Also, does the PH of boiler water change even if you don't add makeup water?  Does the mixing of carbon dioxide in with the water  increase the PH enough to matter over time?



Thanks,

Chris J

icesailor

PH Testing.

You can buy a PH Pen. They aren't cheap. Or you can be cheap and goo to a pool supply store and buy a pool PH test kit. They are cheap. Probably $25.00 or less.

Jean-David Beyer

Easiest way?

The easiest way to test pH of water solutions is with those paper test strips. Easy, but in my experience as a photographer who mixes his own chemistry sometimes, not very accurate. It is really difficult to assess the color of the wet paper  in comparison to the colors on the code strip, and I am very good at recognizing color differences.



I also have a Hanna Instruments HI96108 pH tester. it is not quite so easy for a homeowner to use, because I must calibrate it every time I use it. If I were a professional using it every day, I would probably have to calibrate it only once a day. It claims to have automatic temperature compensation, but it does not seem to handle the following problem.



The water I test must be very close in temperature to the buffer solution temperatures I use to calibrate it. In other words, if I calibrate it at room temperature (say 70F) and draw some 110F water from the boiler, it will give incorrect readings. And if I leave the boiler out in a little cup to cool down, it will absorb CO2 from the air and become more acidic. My solution is to wait until summer when the boiler is not heating the house, and picking a time long after the boiler operated to warm up the indirect hot water heater. I do not know how professionals deal with this.

Hap_Hazzard

pH

I use my pool reagents for testing. They sell pH-only tests that are pretty inexpensive and fairly accurate.



The chemistry of boiler water does change significantly from the chemistry of the makeup water, but after a few heating cycles it should stay fairly stable. Heating water drives out all the dissolved gases and causes minerals to precipitate. Any gases that make it back into solution usually react with the dissolved iron to form rust, which also precipitates out.

Chris_83

PH Test Kit

How accurate does the ph testing need to be for a home boiler?  Would test strips like this http://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-491-ph-test-strips-50.aspx be good enough?

gerry gill

yes Chris,

those would work out just fine.