Home Appliance Warranty Drinking Water Problems Scale Formation Corrosion
Have you read your warranty on that new $ 1500.00 appliance or $ 5000.00 boiler ?
GUESS WHAT? If you water quality violates the terms of you manufactures warranty, the Warranty on that NEW Water Appliance may mean nothing and may be invalid on day one. The same goes for the water heater, other heat exchange devices, dishwashers, clothes washers, and other water related appliances.
We suggest you get a copy of critical warranties and review !
When you review your warranty, the warranty will usually list circumstances that not covered, and “scale buildup due to water quality” is typically found on that list. Read the fine print (Source – https://homewateradvisor.com/hard-water-appliance-warranty/) .
We reviewed a warranty for a boiler as part of a water quality assessment and we found the following: “Water conditions that have caused deterioration or unusual deposits on the heat exchanger”. We asked one water quality professional and they said this could be a number of conditions, but the most common are corrosive conditions and scale forming water. In a few rare cases, the problem may be associated with a high total dissolved solids associated with salts (chloride) or potentially water with high levels of metal oxides like iron and manganese that could create an oxidized residual or coating or a lot of suspended particles in the water that contribute to physical corrosion.
During an energy expo focusing on renewable energy, one of the professionals and guest speakers indicated the following: “The local groundwater or drinking water quality is a significant factor in ensuring the long-term performance and efficiency of any water related appliance. One significant problem is water that is classified as very hard with a high alkalinity. When this water is heated, a portion of the carbonates are converted to CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas and the water becomes supersaturated with calcium and magnesium carbonate. The calcium and magnesium come out of solution as a solid particle and then this particle becomes a coating or scale in the water piping and appliance components that are in contact with the water. As the scale accumulates, the pipes become clogged and the efficiency of the appliance is reduced. This is very common with boilers, on-demand tankless water heaters, and storage water heaters that use gas for fuel or high temperature units. ”
An independent study (pdf) commissioned by the Water Quality Association showed that “water heaters operated on softened water maintained the original factory efficiency rating over a 15-year lifetime. On the other hand, hard water can lead to as much as a 48% loss of efficiency in water heaters.”
One common question is why is the hot water appliances more vulnerable to corrosion?
“Corrosion is more likely and more rapid at higher water temperatures. The rate of corrosion triples or quadruples as water temperature rises from 60°F to 140°F. Above 140°F, the rate of corrosion doubles for every 20°F increase.” (Source (pdf) )
At an Eastern Regional Water Quality Conference, I meet Kris Toomey from LH Brubaker Water Conditioning. He told me a bit about his business.
“Appliances and water treatment go hand in hand. The benefits of soft water for appliances are plentiful. It is a perfect marriage between providing an appliance that improves the quality of life for a family and offering water treatment equipment to ensure the long-term reliability of the state-of-the-art appliances and at the same time providing a barrier to protect the family. Providing the appropriate water quality treatment of the household water is like offering an additional “insurance policy” for the house, family, and the appliance.
Not only are you protecting their investment, but you are helping with soap savings, skin and hair benefits as well as protecting the plumbing system, water heater, and plumbing fixtures. In many cases, this action is necessary to protect the warranty on the new equipment. There is no better feeling than ensuring that the family walking through your door making an investment in their home is given the right information to ensure the reliability of the appliances. Every fridge that leaves the store has an opportunity for an RO system to provide the highest available purified water option and this additional barrier protects not only the appliance, but also the family.”
For example: Depending on the hardness of your drinking water, the concentration of the total hardness or hard water or the corrosiveness of the water may void or invalidate the manufacturer’s warranty, the HOME Warranty, and any extended warranty of your water related appliances, such as: dishwasher, refrigerator, washing machine or water heater due to its corrosive nature of the drinking water. A typical water heater warranty could state that the heater is covered for anywhere between 6 -12 years. If you read the warranty, it will likely list specific water quality parameters that should not be exceed or water conditions, such as scale formation due to water quality or corrosive water.
Therefore, if you buying a water appliance from a business that does not recommend getting your water tested and you are on a private well or on city water that has occasional problems or you have not had your water properly tested, you should ask about the terms of the warranty and get your drinking water tested (City TApWater / Well Water). Regarding basic treatment, the Know Your H20 team recommends the installation of a whole house particle filter (Well Water Particle Filter) or (City Drinking Water Filter (basic approach / advanced approach) to protect home water appliance from corrosion related to the presence of particles in the water that could damage piping.
Impact of Water Quality on Water Heating Equipment “The local water quality is one of the factors that contributes most significantly to the long-term performance and longevity of water heating equipment. Specifically, highly alkaline water will lead to the accumulation of scale, which will impact the efficiency of tankless and gas storage water heaters and can lead to decreased equipment life.”
The Know Your H20 Team recently reviewed a Warranty for a boiler. The warranty did not list specific water criteria for specific parameters, but the warranty stated that the warranty was not valid if these conditions were present: “Water conditions that have caused deterioration or unusual deposits on the heat exchanger”. This condition could include a number of situations that could include corrosive water, scale forming water, water with high salts, especially chloride, and/or drinking water with a high concentration of metal oxides like iron and manganese that could create an oxidized residual or coating.
Your Potential Problem- Is it Corrosion or Scale Formation?
Corrosion
Corrosion is where the water reacts with the household metal plumbing piping and fixtures and these reactions are typically associated with the release of copper, lead, nickel, chromium, and zinc. The common problems associated with Corrosion include: water that has a bitter taste, intermittent discolored water, coatings that may be blue, bluish green and sometime brown, low water pH, high water acidity, low hardness and low alkalinity, discolored laundry, deterioration to piping, fixtures, and appliances, and ultimately the failure of equipment. For this condition, we recommend the Corrosion Check Kit.
Scale Formation
Water can contain two general types of hardness, i.e., temporary hardness and permanent hardness. Scale formation in water appliances is typically associated with temporary hardness, because the scale is normally formed after the water has been heated. The scale is normally composed of calcium and magnesium carbonate that has a white to gray appearance. If the water company adds a sequestering chemical like phosphate to the water, the scale may include other metals such as copper, lead, zinc, aluminum, nickel, arsenic, iron, and manganese. The initial scale coating if uniform on the pipe may protect the piping from localized corrosion or physical damage, but as the scale increases the user may experience problems with the system. Scale formation can reduce efficiency of hot water related appliance, reduce pipe diameter and pressure, reduce the water flow, block intakes to water appliances, and cause valves to not properly or completely close. For this condition, we recommend the Corrosion Check Kit or the Problem Checker (if you suspect a nuisance bacterial problem and have an iron or manganese potential problem) .
One engineering calculation based on water quality testing can be used to conduct a preliminary assessment for the potential for corrosion or scale formation is the Saturation Index (SI) calculation.
Note:
Learn about the warranty when purchasing a water related appliance and Get Your Water Tested (Well Water or City Water) Requires Different Testing! You may not need a whole house filtration system just a water treatment system on the water going to the on-demand water system or a POU Water device, especially on city water that may contain water treatment chemicals that create chemical scales.
Written by: Mr. Brian Oram, PG/ Soil Scientist – Know Your H20 Program
Manager for Keystone Clean Water Team
Drinking Water Testing Kits Corrosion Lead Copper Metals – My Drinking Water is it Safe?
Article for: private well owner, spring user, city water customer, regulated water supply, water utility customer, homeowner, landlord, tenant, drinking water
The Flint water crisis reportedly started in 2014 and ended in 2019, but in reality the “crisis” started prior to 2014 and probably has not ended. Why? The problem with corrosion within the water system and individual’s homes clearly started prior to 2014 and the customers and users within the system were not aware of the short-comings in their drinking water quality, the need for corrosion control, need to replace service laterals, plumbing within their homes, the need to be proactive in protecting your personal and families’ health, lack of public outreach and education, and not knowing the wrong signs of a corrosion problem The main purpose of this article is to help identify the warning signs of a potential corrosion problem with your drinking water. The signs of a corrosion problem come in many forms, but it is important for the user to take responsibility for keeping their eyes open. Corrosion of our drinking water supplies is a very common water quality and public health issue that is related to not only the raw water quality, level of pretreatment, status of the community distribution system, the internal plumbing for a building, the usage and management of water within the building, and the fixtures used within the system. This sounds overwhelming, but there are clear warning signs you may have a problems.
The most common signs of a problem with corrosion included the following:
- Blue-green or greenish water or even reddish brown or brown water that may be intermittent and worse in the hot water than the cold water.
- Staining of porcelain fixtures, such as sinks, drains, or tubs that appear green, blue-green, and reddish brown.
- Coatings on aeration devices that appears greenish-gray or bluish green and particles on the screen of the aerator that appear green, bluish-green, greenish-gray, reddish-brown, yellow-brown, or even bluish-gray.
- Discoloration of water piping near solder joints and/or pin-hole leaks in piping and the premature failure of water appliances and water heaters.
- Old piping in a home that may include lead pipes or piping that was installed using high lead solder, such as lead service lines and galvanized piping.
- The first flush of the water from the tap may have a bitter taste.
What is the age of your home, when was the house last remodeled, and the piping in your home?
YOUR household plumbing may be the cause for lead in your drinking water. In older homes, lead was used to make the piping and/or solder. In homes, built prior to 1930’s water pipes were primarily made from lead. These pipes can be identified because the piping tends to have a dull gray color, can be scratched with a key, and a magnet will not stick to the piping. In buildings built between the 1930’s and early 1980’s, copper pipes were often used, but the solder contained elevated levels of lead. The primary source of the lead includes the use of lead pipes, lead lined tanks, and use of 50/50 lead/tin solder. Because of the concern with lead, the EPA banned the use of high lead solders in 1986.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s galvanized water lines was utilized in new home construction. Currently, this type of piping is not widely used, but it is more commonly used with well water applications. This piping is steel piping that has a zinc coating to reduce the tendency for the piping to corrode. When this pipe corrodes, the pipe rust from the inside of the pipe and then works outward. When this occurs, the water may produce intermittent discolored water that tends to be brown, yellow, or reddish brown, and the piping will likely clog with rust and most likely collapse over time. This does not mean that a newer home is safe from lead contamination; in fact, the available data suggests that buildings less than 5 years old can have high levels of lead.
In fact, buildings built prior to 1986 likely contain some lead plumbing. Prior to 2014, the legal definition for “lead free” was plumbing fixtures with a lead content of less than 8 %. In 2014, the term was redefined to include only fixtures with a lead content of 0.25% and newly installed fixtures must use the “lead free” materials, but this did not apply to fixtures currently in use.
What You Can Do to Protect Yourself and Your Family?
After getting this information, you should do the following:
- Inspect your plumbing system for signs or evidence of a corrosion problem and low cost lead screening testing (water) or (paint,dust, soil).
- Take note of the visual and aesthetic signs of a corrosive water problem.
- Try our Free Drinking Water Diagnostic Tool.
- Order the Drinking Water Guide.
- Get Your Drinking Water Tested and the Results Reviewed by a Professional. At a minimum, we recommend the “Corrosion Check” Water Test Kit.
- Act to improve your drinking water quality by reporting problems to your local water authority for public water supplies or if your water comes from a private water source take the necessary action to reduce the risk to the health of yourself and your family and to reduce the potential costs associated with the premature failure and/or invalidating the warranty of water related appliances, water leaks and associated damage, and/or the additional operational costs associated with inefficiencies associated with clogged or corroded piping/equipment.
- Update fixtures and piping and consider the use of point-of-use filters or a whole-house water treatment system. Before installing a water treatment system, please get a comprehensive water quality test (City Water) or (Well Water).
Our Motto is ” Learn / Diagnose / Test “
Learn – learn about your source and system.
Diagnose – determine the warning signs or symptoms of a problem and get the water tested and problem diagnosed.
Test – implement an approach to mitigate the problem and test to make sure the problem is corrected.
Source: Oram, Brian; “Lead In Drinking Water – Is There Lead In My City Drinking Water ?”, Water Research Center / Know Your H20 Program, 2020.
Recommended Reading:
The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water
More on Lead
Your Drinking Water and Your Health – You are Not an Observer !
Even though 60% of the human body is water, water is a resource that is often taken for granted. The primary concerns with water relate to having adequate quantity of the proper quality. In terms of hydration, drinking water is probably one of the best ways to keep your body healthy. Water is used in your body to help maintain your temperature and ensures the proper operation of your circulatory, digestive, and neurological systems. Water is one of the pathways that potential contaminants and disease causing agents can enter the body, so the quality is also important. Therefore, we need drinking water of adequate quantity of the proper quality.
When the body is not properly hydrated, our body’s response is to make us feel thirsty, but if you miss this clue watch out for dry mouth, swollen tongue, weakness, dizziness, confusion, palpitations, and fainting. If over hydrated, you can become water intoxicated or hyperhydration. If hyperhydration occurs, the kidneys can not process all the water and the system becomes overwhelmed. There are phone apps and other tools to help you to remember to drink enough water, but our general recommendation is if you feel thirsty it is time to get a drink and given a choice pick water.
Water comes in many forms, which can include premium bottled water, tap water, spring water, carbonated water, soda, coffee, tap water, nutrient infused water, juices, and purified water. Of all these, it is my professional opinion that we just need to drink water. The two most common sources of drinking water for a community is either public water or a private water source. A public water source is always regulated by both the federal and state governments and many may call this city water or tapwater, but well or spring water may be from a public or private source. If you get your water directly from a well or spring, this is a private source and this is not commonly regulated.
If you get your water from city water, the most common health concerns are related to the presence of chlorine-by-products or corrosive by-product in the United States, the public water supply systems are disinfected using various forms of chlorine and phosphate is added to attempt to control corrosion. The chlorine is used to disinfect the water, but it can react with naturally occurring organics to form trihalomethanes, i.e., a potential carcinogen; while phosphate will react with the metals in the water to form a scale or coating on the inside of the piping, see “Flint, Michigan”. If you are on well water, the most common problems are the presence of bacteria and elevated levels of salts in the water, like nitrate, chloride, and sulfate, or corrosive water. In some cases, the water may contain elevated levels of radionuclides and trace metals, like arsenic, iron, lead, and manganese. The quality of the drinking water depends on type of water, location, level of treatment, the condition of your plumbing, and your home or house. In some areas, the community is concerned about pipelines and natural gas development, but a hidden problem may be the existing quality of their drinking water.
For citizens, our general recommendations related to drinking water are:
1. City Water Customers– Review any annual “Consumer Confident Reports” produced by your water supplier and act accordingly.
2. Private Water Sources -Get your water tested, at least annually, and have the results review by an expert (our Mail order program) or maybe conduct a in-home screening test yourself and calculate your Water Quality Rank.
3. Look out for potential problems with your drinking water, based on what you can see, taste, smell, or otherwise detect with your senses or problems that may be caused by the water.
4. Review our Drinking Water Diagnostic Web Application.
A few short phrases we should try to remember.
We ALL Live Downstream !
Groundwater and Surface water are Connected!
We are Part of the Water Cycle – Not just an Observer!
Websites of Interest
Consumer Confidence Reports
https://www.epa.gov/ccr/ccr-information-consumers
Neighborhood Hazardous Reports and Water Testing
http://www.knowyourh2o.com
Flint Authority Falsely Reports Water Quality Testing for Lead in Drinking Water
“FLINT, MI – As concerns about Flint’s water quality were mounting earlier this year, the city disregarded federal rules requiring it to seek out homes with lead plumbing for testing, potentially leading the city and state to underestimate for months the extent of toxic lead leaching into Flint’s tap water.
City water officials filed certified documents with state regulators that claimed the city only tested tap water from homes where residents were at the highest risk of lead poisoning, but records obtained by The Flint Journal-MLive show those claims were false and may have delayed efforts to fix the public health emergency.
Water samples sent to state labs for testing in the first six months of this year were all marked as having come from homes with lead service lines, but actually almost always came from homes at less risk of lead leaching – houses with underground plumbing made of copper, galvanized steel or materials that could not be identified, according to the city’s own documents given to The Journal through the Freedom of Information Act.
In response to questioning, Flint Utilities Administrator Mike Glasgow said the city was struggling to collect the number of samples that were required following the city’s switch to the Flint River as its water source in April 2014.”
To read more on this story – go to http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/11/documents_show_city_filed_fals.html
Learn More about Your Drinking Water
- Get the Know Your H20? Phone App (Free) – http://www.knowyourh20.us
- Learn more about Corrosive Water and Affordable Water Testing – http://www.water-research.ne
Flint Michigan Officials Drinking Water We Have Problems
Flint Officials Are No Longer Saying the Water Is Fine
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/us/reassurances-end-in-flint-after-months-of-concern.html?_r=0
By MONICA DAVEY
OCT. 7, 2015
“FLINT, Mich. — All along, through months of complaints from residents of this city about the peculiar colors and odors they said were coming from their faucets, the overriding message from the authorities here was that the water would be just fine.
Yes, there had been a boil order when fecal coliform bacteria turned up in some neighborhoods last year. And yes, the extra chlorine that was pumped in to solve that problem seemed to create another one — increased levels of a different contaminant.
Still, the guidance from Flint officials about the temporary water supply they switched to in 2014 — partly to save money — sounded reassuring. In a notice sent to residents in July, city officials declared: “This is not an emergency. If a situation arises where the water is no longer safe to drink, you will be notified within 24 hours.”
The soothing talk has vanished. In recent weeks, testing has shown increased levels of lead in the blood of some Flint children — and health officials pointed to the water as a possible source.
First, the city advised residents to run their water for five minutes before using it, to use only cold water for drinking and cooking, and to install lead-removing water filters. Then county officials issued an emergency advisory recommending that people not drink Flint’s water unless it is tested for lead or filtered.
And last Friday, after corroborating that lead levels had risen in some children, state officials called for the water to be tested at all Flint public schools and for stepped-up efforts to replace lead service lines; they also promised $1 million to provide filters.
Officials met here on Wednesday afternoon, and talks were underway, officials said, for additional solutions that could come as early as Thursday. Gov. Rick Snyder said on Twitter late Wednesday that he planned to make an announcement about the situation on Thursday morning.
Private groups have raced to donate bottled water to schools, where the water fountains are now shut off, as well as filters to families who cannot afford them. Saying “we’re just in a heck of a bind,” Robert J. Pickell, the Genesee County sheriff, began serving bottled water and food that need not be cooked in water to hundreds of inmates in the county jail. Some residents have begun washing their children and pets with bottled water.
And Flint’s mayor, Dayne Walling, who had attended a 2014 event to celebrate the switch to the new water supply, called for returning to the city’s old water supply and urged state officials to provide millions of dollars to help pay for it.
The contaminated water was just the latest blow to Flint, an economically battered city that has struggled for years with factory closings, job losses and population decline.”
Comments
- This can be a problem associated with bacterial regrowth, Microbiologically induced corrosion, corrosive water, and a plumbing problem.
- The primary recommendations get a comprehensive water quality test of the first flush and flushed water sample.
- Always flush the water line prior to use and use cold water and not hot water.
- Base decisions on facts not fear.
- Special Informational Water Screening Testing – Get your water screened for water contamination including lead – unflushed and flushed water samples tested for 30 parameters including corrosion potential for only $ 175.00. Email