Posted by Harold Kestenholz - Hydronic Network on September 13, 2000 at 09:04:07:
In Reply to: Ph Level posted by John Hazen on September 13, 2000 at 06:34:14:
Generally, you do not want to have calcium and magnesium build up quickly on your boiler walls. Water over the neutral 7 Ph would have some of these bases as part of the water that buffers acidic readings to a neutral condition. If you are not adding water frequently to the boiler, some base chemicals to a Ph of 9 can help protect the boiler.
Just the Ph of the water is not the only condition that will predict the corrosivity of the water. Other chemicals in the water can corrode even with a Ph of 9; but if you haven't had trouble in the past years, you are probably OK. If you want to lower the Ph to 9, you can do this by diluting with distilled water that usually has a Ph a bit below 7. Just pour it in a convenient top hole. You would want to check the Ph with litmus paper or pool tester to make sure you are not getting too low. A chemical test is good to see what the composition of the water is.