is condensate neutralization absolutely neccesary?

Brad White_118

If not you

then some other frustrated person...

mtfallsmikey

I know it USED to be mandatory

That neutralizers be used. They were shipped with the 1st gen. condensing furnaces, and inspectors checked them.And as Robert pointed out, it always was in the code, but my local AHJ's are not requiring them to be installed anymore.

hr

depends

on how much additional water is flushed down that drain. If it is only condensate you probably will rot out that line.

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D107

So maybe another approach instead of filtering is to

set up a flush system that releases sufficient water along with the condensate. (if the condensate can be accumulated to a certain amount and flushed once a day or so with a reasonably small amount of clean water.)

A contractor asked me once: 'well where do you discard those spent marble chips without harming the environment?'

Yet another approach: Just as cold fusion in theory is supposed to be great since it uses radioactive waste as fuel, is there any conceivable industrial use for the chemicals in condensate waste? Paint stripper? Decongestant?

David

Brad White_9

Chip Disposal

When the acidic condensate is neutralized, the limestone/marble chip pH moves downward closer to 7 as the acid moves up toward 7. In the end (and I will test this myself) both probably settle just on either side of 7 depending on variables. In the process, hydrogen is created, not sure how much.

I do not see any harm in putting the spent chips (slurry residue) in the garden. Must help some living thing; that calcium could prevent osteoporosis in crickets with rickets.

I imagine with a pH of 3 to 4 it may make a pungent vinaigrette...

brucewo1b

David or pipe it

to your Blueberry bushes or Strawberry Patch, but keep it away from your Lilacs.

hr

I'm on a septic

and the water flows in one end and out the other into about 100 ton of limestone drain rock. Most of Missouri sits on limestone, so I'm not too worried about it getting to neutral before it in in the soil.

I suspect condensate is a lot less harmful than the millions of gallons of ChemLawn that gets sprayed on lawns every year. That stuff will pinhole copper water mains 12" below!

Certainly the correct way to handle it is through a bed of stones that will bring the ph up.

I'd guess lime has a ph of around 12, not sure about marble. Either should be easy to come by at home centers, landscape suppliers or gravel pits.

Try filling a small bucket with condensate, then throw in any old discolored copper pipe fittings Rinse and install.

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