PH and Your Water.

I have always been a "This Old House" addict starting in the very beginning when Bob Vila hosted the show.  It's pretty amazing that other than Bob Vila everyone else, except for Kevin, have been there since the beginning.  They are always very professional and informative about all their projects. They now have "Ask This Old House" to help homeowners with household repairs/problems that may be beyond what the homeowner can do.  I was watching an episode with their plumber Rich the other day.  He had someone call in to say they had very blue water in their home and it seemed to be corroding their appliances and fixtures.  This was an older home and indeed the copper levels were high as the homeowner had the water tested.  These owners were fairly new to this home however so we don't know if this had been an ongoing problem or something new.  Rich and Kevin were in the studio discussing this problem and probable solutions as they do at the beginning of the show.  The homeowner had an existing water softener in the home that was working fine.  After discussing the excess copper issue in the home Rich came to the conclusion that the water softener was the problem and that soft water was actually corrosive causing the corroding of copper plumbing in the home, hence the high copper levels.  Being in the water treatment business for almost thirty years I was stunned by his statement.  In reality, the exact opposite is the truth.  The problem is, and I see this every day, people make uninformed decisions before they do any water testing in the home or look for other causes to the problem.  As I have stated many times it is very important to listen to the homeowner and get their view of the water problems to help narrow down the problem.  In this particular instance, there are many possible causes for the excess copper in the water and 99% of them have nothing to do with the water softener or softened water.

Let's look at some of the possible causes for excess copper/metals in the water:
1.  Excessively high water pressure - Water pressure in excess of 70 psi can cause corrosion of copper plumbing, especially at plumbing elbows.
2.  Water heater temperature set too high - Excessively hot water can corrode copper plumbing.
3.  Improperly grounded appliances - This happens particularly with water heaters if they are not grounded properly. This goes for every water heater whether it is electric, standard vent or a power vent heater. Generally, they fail prematurely.
4.  Bad household ground - If the home electrical system is not properly grounded this can cause many problems including corrosion of plumbing.
5.  Low PH water - It is ideal to have a PH between 6.5 - 8. Water below a PH of

6.5 is considered acidic and very corrosive to plumbing, fixtures, and appliances. To correct this calcite or soda ash is introduced into the incoming water supply to bring the PH closer to a neutral PH of 7.0 or higher.
6.  High TDS - "Total Dissolved Solids".  High TDS can be attributed to excessively hard water, high chlorides and high sodium content in the water.  Typically these water problems would be on a private well.
7.  Excessive dissolved oxygen - High dissolved oxygen levels are extremely corrosive on all plumbing and can be very difficult to treat.  In private wells high dissolved oxygen levels occur frequently after heavy spring rains as the water tables rise and underground aquifers are replenished.
8.   Sometimes high levels of naturally occurring copper are present in private well water supplies.
9.   Bacteria - Sulfate-reducing bacteria and Iron bacteria can be very corrosive to plumbing.
10. Soft water corrosion -  There is a direct exchange for sodium content for hardness through a water softener so the higher the hardness the higher the sodium content would be from a water softener.
This could potentially cause corrosion of plumbing and fixtures. This relates to high TDS.
11.  Dielectric Union failure at the water heater inlet and or outlet.

Dielectric Union Failure on Water Heater Inlet

Blue Green Staining caused by copper corrosion

Recently I had a referral from a customer that lives in a new subdivision.  Her sister and family live in the same subdivision, two streets over, on a cul-de-sac.  All of the homes in this development are plumbed in plastic PEX pipe.  The odd thing is that even with plastic pex plumbing all the homes on this particular cul-de-sac have high copper problems.  Extremely blue water that is corroding all their fixtures and ruining everything in the home including their new custom tile showers.  This development is on a community well water supply and has hard water so water softeners are a necessity.  Much as with what happened in the "Ask This Old House" episode some people were blaming the problem on the water softener.  That made absolutely no sense at all as there was no copper plumbing after the water softener to corrode!  To make a long story short the problem was occurring at the water meter (brass and copper).  Excessively high water pressure (80+ psi) along with relatively high dissolved oxygen from the community well filtration system, to remove iron and arsenic, and the combination of these things was causing corrosion of the water meter and excessively high copper levels in their water.  The solution?   A pressure regulator was installed before the water meters at each home and this solved the problem.

In the "Ask This Old House" episode it was discovered the water heater was actually the source of the problem.  NOT softened water.  Bad grounding, water temperature set too high, trying to compensate for a failing water heater.  All the copper plumbing after the water heater was so pitted and corroded it had to be replaced.  They actually brought in a "Forensic Plumbing Expert".  Which I never knew existed.  To help diagnose the problem and suggest the proper solution.

Even after almost thirty years in the water treatment business I still learn something new every day!

Here are links relating to subjects discussed in this article:

PH and Water

Blue Green Staining

Colors and Smells in water

Copper Corrosion

Copper Toxicity

The Benefits of Soft Water


Good Water, Good Life!

Beauchamp Water Treatment and Supply
872 N Old US 23 Brighton, MI 48114
810 632 2000
www.beauchampwater.com



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   Raymond McConnell