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[Sawdust]

I have a catch container to collect rainwater  water to fill my outdoor wood furnace. Occasionally I add about a table spoon of bleach to the water to retard algae growth. Would appreciate others opinions as to whether or not this will damage the boiler. Thanks, Sawdust

[Scott7m]

Why are you feeling it necessary to use rainwater?

[Sawdust]

I use rainwater because my only other source of water is my well. The well water is very high in lime content, so much that it actually collected in my W/W  exchanger and in my W/A exchanger that I had to pull them and soak them in white vinegar for a week or so to get them cleaned out last season. I was losing at least 60 percent or more of flow through the system.

[Scott7m]

Yep, that hard water can be rough...

I'm not sure on what small amounts of Clorox would do though or if it Evaps and don't hurt anything

RSI may know

[RSI]

I don't know if such a small amount will hurt anything but bleach is very corrosive. Here is something that came up with a google search.

Bleach is corrosive. "Bleach can drill a hole through stainless steel," says Curriden, "that's why it's important to wipe down metal surfaces with water or ethanol after treating them with bleach." For delicate metal instruments, consider avoiding bleach altogether and using a different kind of disinfectant, such as ethanol.[/quote)

http://www.scripps.edu/newsandviews/e_20060213/bleach.html

If your water is that bad, I would get a water softener. That will also solve the possible plugging on the other side of the plate.

[Scott7m]

That's what I was thinking but wasn't sure

Pelican maybe? Lol

[BoilerHouse]

As Yotehunter67 said; A table spoon of bleach to a barrel of water will do no harm.  Using a quality boiler water treatment will get the pH and alkalinity within the proper range.

[Flyfishjt]

Idk about the bleach but I do know that you are doing the best thing possible by using rainwater. I talked with the owner of hardy even tough I don't own a hardy and he said the #1 killer to all owb is salt and that rainwater has the least amount of salt and corrosive materials in it. I wish I could've been patient enough to collect enough rainwater atleast for my  1st fill.