rusty boiler water

Bill Campbell

Installed a gas fired cast iron boiler into a home w/ cast iron radiators on one zone, 2 zones of fin tube BB, one of which has two toe-kick units in kitchen. This was about 1 1/2 years ago. Was doing some service couple weeks ago and drew out some water. Very rusty and heavy foam, with very foul chemical smell. We treated w/ 8-way. Checked it a few days ago. Still rusty water, a little foam, still has smell. PH is 6. High iron and copper content. Total hardness (calcium) is 160. Should we treat more, or drain system and start afresh?

Jack Ennis Martin

Rusty boiler water

Hello Bill
The ph of your water is slightly acid. The calcium level could be a property of your local water supply. I am not familar with 8 water treatment:but, I would assume it is a packaged general water treatment. I would suggest draining and flushing the system very thourghly. Fill the system and do not add any water treatment at all. We as a rule, never add water treatment to a domestic hot water heating system. Once the dissloved oxygen is driven off and the bacteria in the water is dead { turning the water a black braggish colour which stains permanently} the water becomes inert to the system. Baring leaks etc. you should encounter no further problems. If the problem persists and you are at a loss to what it is doing; most local areas have a lab that can test your water sample and give you a written report as to exactly what is in the water. Good Luck Jack Ennis Martin

hr

It's probably

the water you are filling with. In order to have rust you need O2. Once a sealed closed loop system is fired and completely purged you really do not have a way for rust to happen.

Although Neil Young claims Rust Never Sleeps

I am a fan of both hydronic cleaners and conditioners. part of their job is to handle any remaining O2 (oxygen scavangers is the main component) futhermore they balance the ph, add film surfaces to protect the ferrous components, and are blended to work in multi metal systems.

I have opened cast iron boilered, copper baseboard systems after they have been in service for 10, maybe 20 years and the water is clean and clear.

The introduction of PEX has changed all this, without inhibitors you generally will see rusty, dirty, and or smelly water. Keep in mind pex O2 barriers only SLOW the ingress of O2, they do not stop it 100% like copper tube does:)

Although I believe PAP does a complete O2 barrier job??

The higher the temperature you run pex systems the higher the O2 ingress.

High temperature, non barrier EPDM systems, early pb, and non barriered pex sure did prove this O2 ingress concept vividly Early high temperature PB systems could eat a cast iron boiler i8n a few years time. Same with the early steel manifolds, expansion tanks, etc, etc. Most PB systems will eed a new expansion tank every few years if O2 scavangers are not used, in my experience

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Weezbo

I think it is wisdom to put the same water in each of your

boilers, then you are sure that at least it started out right.reverse management cze is a hassel.there are aquafers of all sorts and descriptions when you have a Known then you can make relatively sane determinations.:) running the system up on start up, and flushing it should be a standard, then when you add glycol water solution you have a known again. you only have to see what the water here is like in ten places before adopting this stradgey for survival :)the fill valve shouldnt be able to frick up the solution very rapidly even with really Variant water supplys as it is a small percentage of the solution. i think this is the best method that i have found to date.

George_10

We test both the flush and the fill water

for contractors. Just need a water bottle of each (8oz)
You also could check our web site for info on our cleaner and treatment products. www.rhomarwater.com

I would be very surprised you would be experiencing these difficulties so quickly if our two products had been used.

Our cleaner does a subperb job and the treatment keeps the problem at bay for a year or longer.