Boiler Warranty & System Water EC, Total Hardness & pH Levels

Boiler warranties, Electrical Conductivity, Total Hardness & pH levels in your system water.

What most people don’t realize, is that the manufacturers of their boiler can choose to perform a system water quality check on any of the warranty call-outs that they attend to repair your boiler, and if your system is either too alkaline or too acidic then they can refuse to fix your boiler under the warranty terms and conditions, this also applies to the TDS/EC and Total Hardness, so be very careful who you choose to look after your boiler, as they could allow it to become void of warranty without even being aware.

It is of the utmost importance that you have your boiler & system serviced by an engineer who will understand and record the pH level, TDS or EC and Total Hardness of your system water every year in the boiler Benchmark logbook within the comments section. Otherwise, you could be invalidating your boilers warranty. The manufacturer will also want to see that the water quality has been looked at with something like a turbidity tube to look for iron oxide etc and that some consideration has been made to the water treatment and maintaining the water quality within the system, this also needs to be represented in the benchmark logbook notes.

The systems pH level needs to be within the tolerance limits for the types of metals used in your boiler and system, the higher the pH the more Alkaline and the more susceptible to scaling, the lower the pH the more acidic and more susceptible to corrosion, the boilers tolerance levels will be stated in the MI’s, but remember your system may have a wide variety of different metals from mild steel, galvanized steel, iron, copper, aluminum, brass & stainless steel, all of which could corrode at different ends of the pH Scale.

The system cannot contain any sedimentary materials like magnetite (iron oxide) otherwise 

you must de-sludge the system as soon as possible, this can be done be either, hot flush, chemical flush, system magnetic cleanse or power-flush.

We advise all systems have fitted a magnetic filter to trap iron oxide and debris in the water. We also highly recommend a deareator to remove dissolved gas microbubbles from the system. these include oxygen and carbon dioxide.

As a company, we aim for the pH value of all heating system water to be between a minimum pH of 8.2 to 10, but manufactures instructions can sometimes override this level.

If the boiler has an Aluminium heat exchanger We are looking for a pH of 8.2 to 9

 

In an ideal world, we would like to see a pH level of 8.3 at 25oC, this is believed to be the perfect pH level for a modern mixed metals heating system in the U.K. 

We would also like to see as low as possible result on the Electrical Conductivity, 50 to 100 microsiemens per Centimeter (us/cm) is ideal.

a low conductivity means a high oxygen tolerance.

We will test both Heating system water and the incoming mains tap water to take a comparison of the pH value using a pH meter, we will also check the total hardness via a calcium carbonate droplet or tablet test. we will also check the dissolved solids in PPM (TDS) this is to help gauge the Electrical Conductivity (EC), certain boiler manufacturers will state a maximum limit.

On a Combi Boiler, If the water mains is over 200ppm Total Hardness, then you must have a Scale Reducer Fitted to the mains feed. We suggest an Electrolytic Scale Reducer.

Anything over 170ppm is considered to be hard water, and measures should be taken as soon as possible to protect the system.

Please remember that you can not fill your central heating system up with softened water unless you have controlled the pH level, this is very bad for your boiler and will almost certainly void the warranty with certain boiler manufactures.

We promise we will never use any unsuitable frost and corrosion protection agents, biocides or leak sealants on your system, as these could also void your warranty.

As a company we only use and advise on leaving a quality Inhibitor which is Molybdate based in your heating system, this should be replaced on a regular maintenance program. We advise no longer than every 2 years.

And we also advise that only detergent based cleaners are to be used for flushing out the heating system prior to filling up with clean tap water, then having the Inhibitor added.

 

At horshamgas.co.uk we are able to offer extended boiler warranties on our new installations as we are able to prove to the boiler manufacturer that we have correctly cleaned and protected your heating system as part of the install process. we know the area and water supply really well and know what measurements to look for. but more importantly, we know how to deal with it, this is often a lost skill and many installers do not have this knowledge, we can safely and accurately raise or lower your system pH level.

We are able to achieve this as we use a system health check kit which is sent to a laboratory for testing, they are a market leader in central heating system water and water treatment products that are made to the highest industry standard.

The Laboratory employs a team of highly qualified chemists who conduct comprehensive tests on a wide range of parameters including determination of corrosion products, scale deposition, pH, chloride, conductivity and inhibitor levels.

The water test results are then made available via an online portal.

This is the only laboratory in the industry to offer a quick turn around on their results, and are able to deliver the most accurate and reliable test results for the testing of both system water and mains water in their premium service.

Having met the requirements of national and international standards, we recognize their ability to produce technically accurate, impartial and consistent reports, giving us confidence in their products and services.

Covering the Horsham District area.

Power flushing offered, using only quality and safe chemicals with the aid of a magnetic cleanse filter.