Lab analysis of open boiler water.

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brad068

Feeling the Heat
Nov 20, 2007
445
Central Wisconsin
Did some testing today with some recently purchased chemicals at work.

My boiler water. DO 4.73ppm. pH 6.78

1 gram of sodium sulfite to 1 litre boiler water; DO < .5 ppm. pH 9.92

Did not add an sodium hydroxide but thought I would have to. My boiler water tested @ pH 8.92 IIRC last year and now it is down to pH 6.78. I have never added any treatment to my water.

Half this conc. did nothing, so I think I will stick with this conc. 3.875 L = 1 gal. so.. 3.875L x 1300 gal = 5037.5L / 454 = 11.09 lbs of sodium sulfite.

And maybe I will have to add sodium hydroxide in the future to keep the solution caustic @ pH 8-10

Does this seem right? I know that boiler treatments have alot more additives but I think this is the most abundant and crucial for an open system, DO and pH.

Please, any and all comment welcome.
 
Is there a reason you have decided not to go with Garn's recommendations on water treatment and testing?

On the other hand, with my old OWB open system, filled with an antifreeze solution, I treated only with sodium sulfite, and the boiler was in operation 10+ years before I retired it and sold it, now replaced with the Tarm. I noticed no particular evidence of corrosion.

My first year of operating the Tarm I also used sodium sulfite O2 scavenger and sodium hydroxide to get the pH up. Did not notice any corrosion. But then I switched to a boiler anti-corrosion commercial cocktail, mostly because the supplier convinced me that this was much better than what I was using. Now into my third year on this cocktail.
 
On my water analysis there are 5 items listed. Nitrite, pH, TDS (conductivity), Total Hardness & Iron. I run a pressurized system so I don't know if they check for dissolved O2 or anything else but there were not any other values listed on the chart.
Woodboilersolutions will do your testing for NC and takes an economical approach to their sales. As in "this should get you in the ball park, run it for a while and we will re check".
I have too much $ and time in my system not to make that one last effort / investment.
 
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