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Post by mmaidnz on Mar 8, 2008 4:06:20 GMT
"Would it? My boiler is copper."
What I meant was,whatever is in this additive might also work in a copper boiler.Anyway,everybody in our club uses water straight out of the tap.They don't seem to have any problems. Just as an afterthought,I use citric acid to clean out my electric jug.Would,say ,a spoonful per gallon work to keep a boiler clean?Or is that inviting trouble.?I would be interested in finding out,if anyone knows.
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steam4ian
Elder Statesman
One good turn deserves another
Posts: 2,069
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Post by steam4ian on Mar 8, 2008 4:31:32 GMT
G'day mate
Citric acid will clean your boiler but IMHO don't leave it in there. Tap water with a little hardness is OK, better boiler for reasons I have suggested elsewhere. The problem is nowadays there is so much water treatment before it gets to you. Water Boards and alum to flocculate the water, caustic soda to neutralise the alum, chlorine and ammonia to disinfect it etc, etc,
Natural hardness raises the pH and acts as a buffer and reduces the "dissolving" of the metal into the water . In Roman times they made extensive use of lead pipes and later historians have postulated that the Romans went mad with lead poisoning. They based this on incidents in Scotland where soft water leached the lead out of pipework and poisoned people. However in Italy the water is hard, loaded with calcium ions which buffer the solution and stop the lead leaching into the water, hence lead pipes are safe.
A little hardness is fine but not enough to fur up the heating surfaces, do that in your lady's kettle first; ;D it will also get rid of the chlorine and ammonia (copper doesn't like these nasties).
Regards, Ian
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jamespetts
Hi-poster
Closet eccentric. Also bakes cakes.
Posts: 185
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Post by jamespetts on Mar 10, 2008 22:03:54 GMT
Thank you for all your replies :-) I have just checked the packaging for the Brita filter cartridges: here is what they say:
(1) Intensive pre-filtration: the water flows through a fine mesh filter.
(2) Ion exchange filtration: the ion exchange resin reduces limescale (carbonate hardness), aluminium and certain heavy metals (like lead and copper).
(3) Activated carbon filtration: the activated carbon significantly reduces substances that affect smell and taste such as chlorine, certain pesticides and organic impurities.
(4) Intensive final filtration: the special fine mesh filter retains particle mixture.
Does this seem adequate? Removing limescale and chlorine seem, given what I have read here, to be worthwhile.
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