On 1/3/2010 6:01 AM, Steve Blackmore wrote: > On Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:54:54 -0500, you wrote: > > > >> My water PH is very close to neutral so I know the failures are product >> related. >> > Hi Dave > > Not necessarily, could be galvanic reaction due to dissimilar metals, or > electrolytic if you have some stray electricity grounding to the pipes. > (seems a common problem with pumps or if you have "earthed" to the water > pipes). Particularly bad in water with a lot of dissolved solids, that > will remove the zinc coating very quickly. Galvanised fittings on steel > pipe can be worse than plain iron fittings in certain circumstances. 304 > stainless (passive type) or 316 stainless are much better. > > All the fittings we used to make had to be to the appropriate standard, > those for potable water had to be approved by the UK water authorities > and all had to carry the BSI Kite mark. Those approvals still apply and > anyone found importing, selling or installing non approved fittings > could, in theory, be prosecuted. Seems nanny state, but not if your > house floods, your boat sinks, or your sprinkler system fails ;) > > Steve Blackmore > -- > > >
Good points. I think stainless is the answer. The house is 1968 vintage and some of the pump piping still has galvanized fittings from when the well was first drilled 20+ years ago. Downstream in the same line are fittings I have installed that have failed repeatedly over the years. The old ones hold up, while the newer ones disintegrate. Most of the piping is plastic. But there are places were plastic does not work well. The US is pretty lax about what can be sold as pipe fittings on shelf in a "Home Depot" type store. There are no testing standards that have to be met to my knowledge. No UL, CSA etc. The fittings don't even have the schedule on the bins. All I can surmise is that they are of very low quality. Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Verizon Developer Community Take advantage of Verizon's best-in-class app development support A streamlined, 14 day to market process makes app distribution fast and easy Join now and get one step closer to millions of Verizon customers http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
