Hot Water Heater Hell

[Jim Haskell]

I will start out by saying that I am a home owner, not a plumber… but I have read past posts on some issues and you guys really know your stuff! So I am hoping for some advice and/or guidance for my issue. Ok, here goes…

I live in Maine and have an oil fired furnace. Two years ago this December I had it replaced with a Biasi, along with a MegaStor Indirect HW Heater. My furnace guy has the same set up and has installed tons of these things. He said it would be wicked efficient. I suppose it is, however the tank has been a headache almost from the start.

I am already on my second one which is currently failing. My furnace guy got in touch with the company rep, as he had never encountered such issues before, to find out what was going on. The asked if I had water report for my well water. I had one done 5 years ago when I bought the house. They asked for the pH (which was 7.6) and the Chloride (which was 9mg/L). They came back and said my Chloride level was WAY over the limit.

Now in the research I’ve done about Chloride and Stainless Steel, that explanation makes sense. However this is the issue I am having. I wanted to see how high was high? So I did a conversion of mg/L to ppm and found it to basically a straight one. Meaning my 9mg/L translates to 9ppm. On the tank itself there is a disclaimer saying Chloride level should be below 80ppm. Now I’m no math whiz…. but 9 is way less than 80. So how are they getting their “way high” out of spec calculation from?

Anyone know at what ppm OR mg/L Chloride corrodes SS? What else could the issues be? Because something is ripping through these tanks and fast, but I’d hate to have a water filtration system put in the filter out the Chloride only to find it’s something else entirely.

Any thoughts would be GREATLY appreciated.

[jonaParticipant]

this may help. we run chlorinated water in our dip tanks at work. we run 250 to 300 ppm and have done for years no problem. maybe electrolusis or something.

[robertshawnParticipant]

One of my friend was also facing the same problem with her water heater, she tried almost everything. However, in last she had to call on the professional plumbers for the job.

[briancooperParticipant]

robertshawn wrote:

One of my friend was also facing the same problem with her water heater, she tried almost everything. However, in last she had to call on the professional plumbers for the job.

I also agree with the above post that whenever you are facing such serious issues, its best to let the professionals do the job.

[paulplumbParticipant]

When you rip the next tank out send a section to a metallurgist. They might be able to tell you what is going wrong. Have you got sacrificial anodes in the system and have they been replaced regularly?

[CameronRobertsonParticipant]

I am no plumber at all, though I have fixed bits and pieces at home when our plumbing is broken. Once, I tried to do the same like what you did, but my fixing made it even worse! I think I even spent more undoing what I have done and fixing it back again. Good thing that one of my co-workers at the storage in Northern Beaches was an experienced plumber and was able to help me with it, at free labor. All he did was to buy the materials for me, and did the fixing at home. I have never felt more relieved because I gathered that if I had a professional plumber come it, then entire project would have been more than double. CameronRobertson2013-04-09 12:43:04

[bradjonesParticipant]

By reading this post and the replies, I can only recommend you one thing and that would be take professional plumber help.

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