New Guy with a problem......

[richterpa]

Hey Everyone,

I am hopeing to educate myself, before I am set out to the wolves to fix the problem.

I evedently have high acid in my water. I have not tested yet, but I have a blue green color in my sinks and such, and I just got a pin hole in one of my copper drains. I started researching it this afternoon..... and thats the conclusion I have come to so far.

Beyond the obvious..... "Get a water Test" what are the options that are utilized to neutralize a house water supply?

Your insight and education will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Andy CWS]

[QUOTE=richterpa]Hey Everyone,

I am hopeing to educate myself, before I am set out to the wolves to fix the problem.
Yes, being informed is the key. This can help keep the 'wolves' at bay. I just hope the snakes here don't come out to get you. LOL

I evedently have high acid in my water.
pH is rated from 1 - 14 with 7 being neutral. Below 7 is acidic and above is basic.

I have not tested yet, but I have a blue green color in my sinks and such, and I just got a pin hole in one of my copper drains.
Nobody has one cockroach. Your plumbing is likely to be affected thoughout with some locations worse than others. Consider replumbing. Imagine a pinhole behind a wall!

I started researching it this afternoon..... and thats the conclusion I have come to so far.
Here are some more points:
http://www.plumbingsupply.com/neutral.html

Beyond the obvious..... "Get a water Test" what are the options that are utilized to neutralize a house water supply?
There is a chemical feed system and a mineral attrition system. Chemical feeds inject a solution and need to be monitored as not to raise pH too high. Mineral attrition systems use calcium or marble to dissolve as water passes through raising pH slightly and slowly. No chance of raising pH too high but it will add hardness slightly.

That is a very brief description and more details need to be understood.

Your insight and education will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
You're welcome. I will try hard to hlp and hope that the thread doesn't get to acidic, either!!!

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

[NH Master]

Low PH is much more common and will give you the same blue green problem. Either way, simple test and then decide on filtration from there.

[richterpa]

I actually went over and spoke to both of my neighbors yesturday, and they have validated that low PH issue. They both have systems in there homes, and they each utilized a different company and they each have a different solution to the problem.

One has a drip injector system to nutralize the water, and the other has a sodium based system. Both seemed happy with there solution, I felt the Drip solution looked a bit easier to manage and gave a higher level of control with manageing of the final PH number.

I woud love to hear from some of the professionals in the group as to a ball park installed cost for each system.

Thanks again for allyour help....

[NH Master]

I cana't ball park anything without seeing it first. There are a lot of factors that come into play. Location, access etc

[Gary Slusser]

I actually went over and spoke to both of my neighbors yesturday, and they have validated that low PH issue. They both have systems in there homes, and they each utilized a different company and they each have a different solution to the problem.

One has a drip injector system to nutralize the water, and the other has a sodium based system. Both seemed happy with there solution, I felt the Drip solution looked a bit easier to manage and gave a higher level of control with manageing of the final PH number.

I woud love to hear from some of the professionals in the group as to a ball park installed cost for each system.

Thanks again for allyour help....

A drain line pin hole may not be caused by acidic water. There are many other things that will cause that. But if your water is acidic, it can eat pin holes in water lines. As many other things can also.

I've never heard of a drip system to correct low pH/acidic water. A sacrificial mineral filter or solution feeder is used. Sacrificial mineral in a down flow backwashed filter or some use an up flow non backwashed filter with no control valve and a prefilter ahead of it. Backwashed is best. Those filters will use a single type of mineral or two different types called a mixed bed depending on how low the pH is.

Solution feeders require a retention tank that can get to be quite large and expensive and take up a fair amount of floor space. The feeder injects a controlled volume of a solution you mix up periodically. There is a pump that sucks up the solution and injects it into the water line in front of the retention tan,ll as your well pump runs or you use a flow switch that turns ion the dosage pump when you use water. I refuse to sell solution feeders because of all the baby sitting they require. I only sell backwashed mineral acid neutralizing (AN) filters; not upflow types.

The AN mineral is heavy and you must have enough gpm at a decent water pressure to successfully backwash it. The mineral is dissolved into the water by the acid and that adds hardness to your water.


Before you do anything you need to get a water test for pH, iron and hardness at least.