Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: bowhunter79 on March 24, 2017, 12:56:40 PM
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What's everyone think about using softened water in an OWB? My dealer told me it was best if you used it but I didn't have one when we hooked it up. I have since installed one and have been using it to top it off when needed. I just got an email from Hawken support and they stated not to use softened water.
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I used nothing but soft water in the first one I built, quite bothering with water treatment the second year, had 15 years on it and zero leaks, took it out of service from external corrosion. Several companies that manufacture boiler treatment recommend soft water if available.
A lot of people have the misconception that soft water will have enough salt in it to cause corrosion. My wife has congenital heart defects, we’ve heard the same from numerous specialists and the American Heart Association agrees, a properly functioning water softener won’t add enough salt to even effect the most sensitive of high blood pressure patients.
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For warranty purposes id go with what your manufacturer recommends, but I used softened water in both of my Central Boilers. IIRC, they recommend using it. Got 13 leak free years on the first one before i upgraded to a gasifier.
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What's everyone think about using softened water in an OWB? My dealer told me it was best if you used it but I didn't have one when we hooked it up. I have since installed one and have been using it to top it off when needed. I just got an email from Hawken support and they stated not to use softened water.
Pffff........Hawken Support.........
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I asked Slim the same question one time. He said that if I was using ocean water it might make a difference, but not softner water. I used it in my demo Woodmaster for fourteen years, and sold it. It lives on heating two houses.
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I would use softened water if I had it but if not, no big deal for a closed system. A softener does not add salt, it changes the type of salt in a water supply. Hard water is high in calcium and magnesium salts, mainly carbonates, sulphates and chlorides. If not treated, these salts "un-dissolve" (precipitate) and form hard deposits in the boiler, which reduces heat transfer and could cause hot spots. A softener replaces the calcium and magnesium with sodium. So now you have sodium carbonates, chlorides and sulphates (aka sodium salts) feeding the boiler. These sodium salts do not "un-dissolve" (precipitate) and do not form hard deposits. Other water treatment strategies, like pH control, further reduces the risk of these relatively low salt concentrations. Again, this is more of an issue with systems which have high make up, not so much with our OWB's.
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Another thing, in our area water tends to run high in PH or alkalinity, some areas of the country might have a lower Ph or be acid, acid water will definitely eat stuff up and a softener will have no effect on the PH. I tend to think thats why my first boiler lasted so long without any treatment, a high PH and soft water so less scale to build up. Also my water heater is over 20 years old and still water tight.
Just installed a new softener a week or so ago, bought a Waterboss 700 which is designed for well water, at the tap with soft water we now have zero iron and a hardness of zero. Normally without the softener our water runs about 8ppm of iron and a hardness of 40 grains. Also have a second tap at the sink, I prefer well water to soft for drinking, routinely have to use CLR on that or it will eventually crud shut. If a tap will crud shut with iron and calcium I couldn’t imagine what the inside of my boiler would look like even with treatment.
Regardless of what might be proven “best” to use if the manufacturer of the stove or treatment says no soft water then no soft water.
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Stop at your local Walmart and grab yourself an RV water filter. It is made to go onto a garden hose and is a charcoal type filter. I ran softened water plus that filter into the stove. I get some calcium in my well water, no iron tho, and that filter will take out all the impurities as it is made for drinking purposes. I believe it was around 18 dollars and is good for 1000 gallons.
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After talking to the factory, I used softened water on both the G400 and now my G200. I added the recommended amount of treatment and after running it a week sent in my sample to have it tested. Results came back right in the target areas with no further treatment needed. My water supply also has a whole house 10 micron high flow filter so very little sediment gets through.
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After talking to the factory, I used softened water on both the G400 and now my G200. I added the recommended amount of treatment and after running it a week sent in my sample to have it tested. Results came back right in the target areas with no further treatment needed. My water supply also has a whole house 10 micron high flow filter so very little sediment gets through.
Yah, forgot to mention the new softener has a built in screen as well, gets cleaned with the regeneration cycle so supposedly is good for the life of the softener.
Picked up a water test kit from Menards the other day, everything including lead, iron, copper, pesticides and bacteria tested right at zero with a PH of 7.6.
Only issues I have with that high a PH is keeping the aquariums closer to neutral. Using an acid and alkaline buffer together which actually turns some of the excess PH into Co2 which is good for the plants in said aquariums.