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boiler additive

Hilly
Hilly Member Posts: 428
in Plumbing
Would you consider food grade propylene to be a moderate or severe risk from a backflow prevention selection perspective?

Comments

  • Gordy
    Gordy Member Posts: 9,546
    edited October 2014
    I think anything that has the potential to contaminate a water supply is serious. That being said PG is a toxin even though there are Pharmaceutical, and food grades of PG certain people due have reactions to it.
  • kcopp
    kcopp Member Posts: 4,462
    a watts 9D should be good enough.
    buster403
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,611
    PG is in a ton of food. Many are labeled as healthy. Walmart sells a vitamin water that contains PG. I personally try to avoid it.
    That being said, any boiler system should have a double check with an atmospheric vent as a minimum. The watts 9D is a common one.

    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    If you are going to put anything other than water into a heating system like anti-freeze or any other boiler chemical, you need to be using this one.

    In Massachusetts, the commercial boilers where I worked and worked on, all required this one to be in place when the State Inspectors of Backflows etc. came around. They are supposed to be able to connect gauges onto the device to check if it works. I had them fail and had to repair them.

    http://www.watts.com/pages/_products_details.asp?pid=895
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    Hilly said:

    Would you consider food grade propylene to be a moderate or severe risk from a backflow prevention selection perspective?

    You mean the same stuff they put in cheap ice "cream" in place of cream to keep the ice water from turning in to a solid ice cube?

    Look on a box of cheap ice cream. It will show Polypropylene Glycol.

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,560
    Back in the old days when I was a building inspector (boo, hiss) I wouldn't accept any boiler installation which did not have backflow prevention. Period. As Zman said... Regardless of whether anything other than water was put in it.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 23,108
    PG propylene glycol is used as a flavor and scent enhancer in many food products. Good chance it's in your tooth paste!

    There are some differences between food grade and technical grade glycols. It all starts from a barrel of crude! Although there are some BIO glycols based on corn or other plant products as the base. Caleffi Solar PG is a corn based fluid.

    The toxicity has to do with all the chemicals and additives that are added to make it a hydronic or GEO fluid. Some of the quality hydronic fluids may have a handful of chemical components added.

    When I bought glycol blended locally it came from the same railroad tanker car as the stuff Kraft Foods blends into many of their food products. About 5000 gallons a month of PG is used by the local food producer, according to my supplier.

    I'm not convinced the high temperature glycols used in evac tube systems are all that non-toxic :) I know my lawn didn't like a splash of that fluid.
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • bob young
    bob young Member Posts: 2,177
    9D IT IS BUT WITH A SPRING LOADED CHECK. PRETTY CLOSE TO PERFECT. NYS CODE ,TOO BOB YOUNG
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    If you filled a system with the local municipal water here in Florida where I live now, it would need a BFD on the boiler because of the high concentrations of bleach in the water. So bad that if you make coffee with tap water, you can't drink it.
  • Hilly
    Hilly Member Posts: 428
    Not sure on my municapalities water chemistry but most travellers rate the taste pretty high up there.
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    They ALL add chlorine to keep the bacteria down. Taste isn't the ruler. Its what's inside that counts. Cryptosporidium is impervious to bleach. Your municipality MUST be able to provide you with a copy of their water provided that they send to the State and Feds.
  • gerry gill
    gerry gill Member Posts: 3,078
    icesailor said:

    If you filled a system with the local municipal water here in Florida where I live now, it would need a BFD on the boiler because of the high concentrations of bleach in the water. So bad that if you make coffee with tap water, you can't drink it.

    Anyone know what bleach does to the inside of a boiler?
    gwgillplumbingandheating.com
    Serving Cleveland's eastern suburbs from Cleveland Heights down to Cuyahoga Falls.

  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
    Bleach is a strong oxidizer. Not good for the overwhelming majority of metals.
  • icesailor
    icesailor Member Posts: 7,265
    "" Anyone know what bleach does to the inside of a boiler? ""

    The heck with that. What does it do to the inside of my body?

    If you install a chlorinator to well water because of iron bacteria or just plain iron, you MUST add a carbon filter to remove the bleach. Last word a while ago is that it is a carcinogen.

    The most dangerous and deadly disease you can get is conception and birth. There's a 100% chance of you dying. Someday.
  • Hilly
    Hilly Member Posts: 428
    edited October 2014
    I'll get a picture after, but what would cause water to turn a bright blue color. It was copper pipe from a relief value that was blowing off. Bright blue like a smurf.
  • Abracadabra
    Abracadabra Member Posts: 1,948
    Hilly said:

    I'll get a picture after, but what would cause water to turn a bright blue color. It was copper pipe from a relief value that was blowing off. Bright blue like a smurf.

    Oxidation inside the copper pipe getting washed out with the water?

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