Blue Pipes??!

Pinball

Ok, today I went to a friends house to do a routine tune-up on his 4y.o. Weil Mclain wgo-4 ( as I have been since installing it). While giving the system a quick Eyeball,I noticed all the copper piping, had turned a mettalic blue color.(NOT typical green corrosion) I asked him what made him "paint his pipes" When he told me He did'nt, I looked closer and found that all the copper in his basement had turned this neat blue color. Even things he had laying around, that had nothing to do with the heating system. The other thing I noticed was all the sweat joints, looked as if they had been way over-heated. And this "blue stuff" would actually flake off if scraped with a fingernail.I didn't have my camera with me so he is going to send me some pics to post soon. I had never seen this before.{and since this is where he stores his homebrew, I go down there frequently:). The only thing that I can think of is he recently (6months ago) had a water conditioning system installed. Some kind of Iron filter and sulphur eliminator. there is a very strong odor of sulpher in the basement. The water conditioner is vented outside with a 5/16 tubing. Is it possible that sulphuric gases are responsible?
any Ideas? anyone?
Al Bruno
Hudson Valley
New York

Dan Peel

Chemical soup

Sounds like bromine or free chlorides - pool chemicals typically but i have run into their use for water treatment. Nasty stuff to be adding to drinking water. Check out the chemicals further, sounds like you are on the right track and the copper will corrode very quickly in that environment. Enjoy.....DAn

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Mark Eatherton1

Got beer???

Two things come to mind. One, beer production produces a LOT of carbon dioxide.

Secondly, the sulpher odor removal systems I've seen inject air into the water, and that air has to come back out somewhere,, like a snifter valve...

Whatever it is is obviously airborne.

Have you looked at the combustion chamber?

Any back draft occuring from the appliance?

ME



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Aidan (UK)

blue pipes

"Some kind of Iron filter and sulphur eliminator. there is a very strong odor of sulpher in the basement. The water conditioner is vented outside with a 5/16 tubing. Is it possible that sulphuric gases are responsible?"

Copper sulphate is blue. It's water soluble, so it should wipe off with a damp cloth. I think it's also toxic, not something you'd want dissolved in the home brew. A strong smell of sulphur + copper plumbing might give you sulphate coated pipes.

How does one of these sulphur eliminators get rid of the sulphur it removes from the water? If it's 6 months old, I'd call the manufacturers or the installers whilst the warranty is still valid. The manufacturer's technical dept would probably know. I don't; I'd like to.

hr

Try contacting www.copper.org

they have tons of info on odd copper problems.

hot rod

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Pinball

Thanks guys,
The HO contacted the water conditioning co. and they are gonna check it out this week. That copper sulphide thing is alittle scary. And I meake my beer there also! So brewing is on hold till this is resolved.
P.S. Hot Rod & ME, it was great meeting you guys at RPA/ISH, (I was the new guy with Abularrage)
Al

Aidan (UK)

Blue pipes

Thanks.

Please let us know the outcome, now I need to know!

sootmonkey

color

Yeah, Man.... them blue pipes are somtnh...I see them to, when I drop a hit of acid on my way to a service call. Don't worry man, they go back to copper colored when you come down.........Just a little comdey guys......come on that was funny. Tough crowd tonight.

Pinball

Update

I spoke to a guy today who knows a little something about chemical(s) reaction. according to him, sulpher gases will attach themselves to copper in the right concentrations.
The coating on the pipes is in fact copper sulphate.it is relatively harmless. (however they do use it in some mold killing compounds). Extremley high concentrations can be corrosive to soft metals such as copper. but it takes a long time to do any harm. The H.O. is still getting the water conditioner people to fix the problem since he found a leak on a compression fitting on the air injection pump on the conditioner. Probably the source of the sulpher smell. I will keep ya posted when I know more for sure.

Pinball

Wow Man! the colors are so cooool! actually it is a cool color1 even without the drugs!
(JK)And YES I thought it was funny