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[Ron_lampreau]

Hi guys,

This is my second winter running my P & M Boiler. We have very hard water. I have a water softener. At the time of install I assumed my plumber would have used the soft water. I was wrong and when I asked him he said you don't want to run soft water in your system. I know he was wrong. I am not sure why he said that maybe he just didn't know better or maybe because he just added all of glycol to the hard water by accident. Who knows anyways he added hard water to my system with the glycol and the boiler treatment. I have a side stream filter which doesn't have any scaling, I have a side arm heat exchanger, I have a heat exchanger in my forced air furnace to heat the upstairs of my house, and I have a plate heat exchanger that heats my radiant floor heating in my basement. I have noticed some scaling on the two heat exchangers in my basement. I will attach pictures. Is that scaling normal? Is it something I should be worried about. Any time I top up my boiler with water I use softened water. I thought about draining the entire system and filling it with softened water but that would be a huge waste of glycol but I would defiantly do it if the scaling is going to affect my system. Because I am not adding anymore hard water will it continue to add deposits to my system? Or is the damage already done? I run my pump a couple times a week in the summer. I have read that you should change your water every five years? Is this true.

[Ron_lampreau]

Sorry the pictures are upside down

[MiHawkeye]

I too have extremely hard water.  I went as far as putting distilled water in the system instead of my tap water, because if not my pipes would be corroded within a few years.  My boiler pipes are still pristine after 3.5 years.  I also had a 20 plate exchanger put in at the time of install, and the dhw side completely corroded shut after 13 months.  I just put a new one in this season after going without last year, but also have a water softener now.  When I did the plumbing for the exchanger, I made sure to put ball valves on all 4 intake/outtake pipes on it so I can take it off and easily clean it each year.  Probably overkill, but I had the fittings and figured it couldn't hurt.

[schoppy]

Have you sent samples in to P&M for testing? I am not sure if there are additives you can use to help with this or not but P&M may know. Don't forget to have boiler tested annually for the warranty.