WATER QUALITY
We need water to fill our radiators to keep us warm and to give us hot showers but why is the quality of water so important?
Water hardness
Water hardness – what is it? What causes it?
The short answer is naturally occurring minerals, like calcium, lime and magnesium mineral salts. How hard your water is will depend on local rainwater’s journey into the water table and specifically the aquifier, the porous rock through which the water trickles. The nature of that aquifier will determine what minerals are picked up along the way.
Why do levels differ?
This is dependent on your local geology, so chalk or limestone areas will have water hardness levels higher than those with impermeable rock such as granite. These minerals will have an impact on taste, which is why we value mineral water and why there can be such variations between different brands. The essential minerals present in hard water are an important factor towards a healthy diet but they present serious problems to the components within your heating system.
Visible signs of hard water
A simple way to see if you live in a hard water area is to look around your home: in your kettle for deposits on the heating element or your shower screens for chalky streaks and staining. You can see who supplies your water using this link. Your supplier’s website will list, usually by postcode, water hardness levels in your area. www.water.org.uk/advice-for-customers/find-your-supplier
Non-visible signs
Non-visible signs (at least initially) include what goes on within your heating system – heat exchanger, pipework, pumps and valves.
Corrosion
In simple terms, corrosion within heating systems is the result of a chemical reaction between elements within the fill water and different metal components within the system.
This results in the wearing away of the surfaces of those components, leading eventually to perforation and resultant leaks. An important factor in the likelihood of corrosion occurring is conductivity - a measure of a solution’s ability to conduct electricity. The more dissolved salts present in water, the higher its conductivity.
What effect does it have on my system?
The likelihood is that you will encounter problems long before the corrosion is advanced enough to cause leaks. The corrosion process generates iron oxide – a black sludge – which will begin to circulate and eventually settle within your system, blocking pipes, radiators, pumps and heat exchangers, damaging seals and having a detrimental effect on its efficiency and operational lifetime.
In the push towards ever greater efficiency modern heating system components such as valves, sensors and control units utilise very small apertures – the openings through which water flows.
The presence of limescale or rust and sludge, the by-products of corrosion, can block these small apertures very quickly, leading to system failure.
What can I do to prevent corrosion from happening?
The boiler market is a competitive one and manufacturers are seeking to set themselves apart from their competitors by offering increasingly longer guarantees.
They are, however, acutely aware of the impact of poor water quality on components and for this reason many seek to make water control a condition of warranty in order to be able to honour these guarantees.
The VDI 2035 Standard
Many major manufacturers will stipulate the thresholds determined within a European standard for water heating systems. Standard “VDI 2035” is a desired benchmark for the industry, being a series of guidelines set by the Association of German Engineers for the control of water quality for heating water. The UK equivalent would be BS 7593:2019, however the construction industry widely accepts that the VDI 2035 standard is far more exhaustive and scientific than the brief coverage to the subject given by BS 7593.
How do Carters Heating Solutions make sure your system meets VDI2035 standards?
We use a range of products from Elysator. Swiss-engineered and proven over 50 years, they are primarily intended to meet the criteria defined by VDI2035 and to deliver water of an optimum quality for heating systems, engineering environments where corrosion cannot occur.
The flow chart diagram shows how their products work.
Their products include:
PUROTAP Leader - using premium quality Nexion resin, the Leader provides fill and top-up water that is demineralised and pH regulated.
SorbOX, Trio and Elysator to provide additional ongiong protection against dissolved oxygen, pH stabilisation, removal of air and dirt delivered corrosion prevention that is non-aggressive and chemical-free.
POWER FLUSH SERVICE
We have invested in Elysator equipment to make sure the water in your central heating system is at optimum level for your boiler to work efficiently and effectively. With our Power Flushing Service we will remove any sludge and deposits in your radiators and pipework. This is what we do:
Drain the heating system using a high power pump
Power flush the system with the use of chemicals
Flush each radiator until the water runs clear
Install a MagnaClean filter which uses magnets to collect magnatite from the system
Fill the heating system via the Purotap leader filter to achieve DVI2035
From start to finish this service usually takes about a day to complete.
COST: £480 inc VAT
(including filter and all materials)