Taco geothermal valve 557

Threatbebo

Hello all,



I have a 6 ton FHP WT water to water geothermal system that has an orange Taco 557-2 valve with 3-contact head on the outbound side of the source water loop that comes from my 600'-0" deep artesian well.  The well water is near 8.5 Ph (acid), and some whitish deposits have appeared at the joint between the bronze casting and the orange head.  I have three questions I hope someone can help me with.

1. Is this the appropriate valve?  It opens, under normal conditions, and after a short delay, the compressor starts.  It seems fine in concept operationally, I'm just curious.

2. The lowest contact, which has a red wire on it, appears to signal the compressor.  This failed recently, and I received a bill for 7 labor hours to diagnose and swap the head on this valve.  The replacement valve head came from another 557 in the system that was used to bleed incoming source water in the event a limit set on a Honeywell controller was reached in an attempt to optimize performance. I presume the original head failed due to the corrosion/ deposits on the cast bronze base. In fact, the valve does not close completely even after the head change.  A: Can the bronze base be disassembled, cleaned, refurbished and reassembled?  If so, are there directions or literature regarding this procedure available?  B:  7 hours labor to diagnose and swap the head seems excessive to me.  I'd appreciate considered opinions regarding this issue.  I've already paid the service technician, but I don't know if I should even consider calling him the next time.

3. In the event the bronze base is not designed to be cleaned and refurbished, can anyone provide advice on a replacement that might perform better (the valve is slightly less than 2 years old) or a way to mitigate the acid condition in-line without disrupting or restricting the required 18 GPM flow?



Thanks in advance for any help.  I'm obviously not a professional HVAC guy, but I'm a careful and detail oriented person, and I have a reputation for being able to fix things correctly.  In other words, I'll likely understand the conceptual basis for direction, and will execute direction without trying to cut corners, so you won't be wasting your valuable time explaining things.  You'll also have my sincere thanks.