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[hotrod232302]

i have a home made outdoor wood boiler. non pressure. it is a very simple set up. i only heat my house with it. i bought the house and this is my first year using this heater. i used county water to fill it. it has somewhere around 400 gal. of water. the entire boiler is made of stainless. i have it plumed with 3/4 in. cpvc pipe with a little iron pipe near the boiler. i am using a bell and gossett pump. Is there anything i should add to the water? i am not worried about freezing due to the fact that i keep a fire burning. i have read that you should use a water softer in your system. i have no way to add one. i am just trying to make sure that i take care of my boiler so that the pluming will last a long time. i will try to add some pics of it soon. 

[fryedaddy]

I'm not familiar with stainless but water softeners add salt to the water.

unless you have a brass pump I wouldn't use water softeners.

[hotrod232302]

i have a cast pump. that would not work so well then   i am wondering about build up in the pipes and heat exchanger? i have seen additives that places sale to add but they cost alot of money. just checking to see if anyone adds them to their boilers.

[Scott7m]

Don't add a water softener, there is nothing wrong with municipal water

What grade of stainless steel do you have? 

What you might need is just regular boiler treatment, 2 quarts would cover you of the proper stuff.  Your stove may not rust, but fittings and other pipe internals can rust and fail if untreated, clogged coils etc

[Bondo]

i have a cast pump. that would not work so well then   i am wondering about build up in the pipes and heat exchanger? i have seen additives that places sale to add but they cost alot of money. just checking to see if anyone adds them to their boilers.

Ayuh,....   Snake oil, designed to free you from yer money...

plain ole tap water is 'bout as good as it gets,...

After a few heatin', 'n coolin' cycles, it becomes sort of a dead water, in that is has less desolved O2 in it, 'n don't rust stuff so badly...

[Scott7m]

i have a cast pump. that would not work so well then   i am wondering about build up in the pipes and heat exchanger? i have seen additives that places sale to add but they cost alot of money. just checking to see if anyone adds them to their boilers.

Ayuh,....   Snake oil, designed to free you from yer money...

plain ole tap water is 'bout as good as it gets,...

After a few heatin', 'n coolin' cycles, it becomes sort of a dead water, in that is has less desolved O2 in it, 'n don't rust stuff so badly...

?   U think that heating up water a few times does away with dissolved 02 content?  Won't rust stuff so badly?  Dead water? 

are you serious? 

[oldchenowth]

I'll take my chances on the snake oil, it is cheaper than replacing an OWB.  At $20 a bottle, it will take a long time to reach $7500.

[RSI]

Not that hard to see the results of the "snake oil" either.
Just a simple test of putting a nail or razor blade in two jars and put treated water in one and plain in the other and wait to see the results.

[Bondo]

i have a cast pump. that would not work so well then   i am wondering about build up in the pipes and heat exchanger? i have seen additives that places sale to add but they cost alot of money. just checking to see if anyone adds them to their boilers.

Ayuh,....   Snake oil, designed to free you from yer money...

plain ole tap water is 'bout as good as it gets,...

After a few heatin', 'n coolin' cycles, it becomes sort of a dead water, in that is has less desolved O2 in it, 'n don't rust stuff so badly...

?   U think that heating up water a few times does away with dissolved 02 content?  Won't rust stuff so badly?  Dead water? 

are you serious?

Ayuh,...    When boiler water is heated, 'n pumped away from the boiler, through the spiro-vent, Dissolved gases are purged from the water...
When done enough times, through repeated heatin' 'n coolin' cycles,...
YES,...
There's little to no available O2 to promote Rust, which requires Oxygen to happen...

If the Ph level is maintained, internal rustin' is pretty much Nonexistent...

Btw,....   I'm gettin' pretty sick of Yer Personal Attacks....
I'm pretty sure that yer 1700 plus post count, doesn't give you God like powers over Myself, nor anybody else.....
As far as I'm concerned, yer callin' Me ignorant, pretty much proves, that in fact You Are...

[willieG]

here is the inside of my water jacket after ten years..oxygen scavenger used the first two, after that, nothing.  i can't say that Bondo is right on little oxygen is in your boiler water or not as i really have no idea. although i believe there is oxygen in the water as an open system has no way of keeping it out once removed(again i really have no idea)

but from the picture you can see there was, after ten years of operation, no visable corrosion inside this water jacket. nor was there any on the inside of the fire box. the fire box had rusted through from the inside due to something i had done and i am sure if i had not done what i did, that firebox would still be in operation
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h308/billie_boy7/008.jpg

[willieG]

perhaps i should clear my last post a bit...i am not saying water treatment is not needed by some (or maybe most) i guess it depends on the type of water you have..i have never had my water tested but it is coming from about 100 feet below the ground where i live. the picture i posted is of the inside of my eater jacket and it show very very little to no corrosion. maybe it was just my luck and perhaps if i had another type of water , sorrosion may have been terrible? this site is for information and i just posted what i saw inside my own home made OWB. 

water is H20 (2 parts hydrogen and one part oxygen) if you were able to remove the oxygen from your water you would be running your OWB on hydrogen ( i think  impossable)

what you are doing if you use an oxygen scavenger is removing "free" oxygen that is mixed in with the water.

the hotter the water the less of this "free" oxygen will be in it.

i'm not sure how many dealers sell oxygen scavenger, i think most of the treatments sold are for "conditioning" the water to the best ph level? perhaps one of the dealers can straighten me out if i am wrong

you cant get the oxygen out of water so they want the ph level at the best level for discouraging algea growth and corrosiveness (i think, again a dealer or open system boiler tech can straighten me out)

[Scott7m]

Willie, here is a link that I think will help answer a lot of questions people may have about water treatment

http://www.woodboilersolutions.com/facts_open.cfm

[Scott7m]

That website is great, thanks Scott!

No problem, I carry there products but honestly I don't know as much about there products as I do the ones from certified labs.  Certified did some training with us at a dealer meeting last year.

[willieG]

http://www.nextlevelsolutionz.com/Shaver_5-year_water-treatment.htm

shaver to the rescue? or "snake oil"

[Scott7m]

lol seeing how they have claimed go be over 80% efficient, and to have gasifiers, I'm going with snake oil as I simply don't trust anything they say.  It used to be on there website that they were qualified for the tax credit, many folks benefited from it, but it eventually came back on them.  I'm sure many of you remember that being hashed out on here