GREEN BATHTUB- The Journey

The Journey...
We live in a semi-rural position where our water supply is rain water collected from a zincalume roof and fed to an aquaplate tank via PVC downpipes. As our house was nearing completion in March of '95 we began considering the exact hot water system required. Much consideration and elimination led us to the particular brand and style of system we would like. We did not want and oil filled system as it was not guaranteed that it would never leak into our water supply, and we eliminated a sacrificial anode as we did not want that added to our water supply either. The decision made, the company's representative came to our site and after an inspection, recommended the suitability of the chosen system.
-- 26/5/95 We purchased the hot water system, which was installed on 19/7/95. Although we had used copper pipes in our previous water heating system, after the new installation, the green/blue stain was quickly evident. -- A phone call to the supplier of the hot water system revealed that they had never had such a problem reported. -- We contacted the plumber who did the installation, who, with his long years in the business (he was about to retire after our job) had never seen such a manifestation. He asked various friends in the trade and reported back to us that they had not ever seen such a thing. -- I contacted our local Council Health Department who advised that we had electrolysis occurring between the zinc roof and the roof guttering. We contacted the supplier of the roof who confirmed that such a thing was ludicrous. We had ensured when we ordered that we had matched zincalume roof and guttering. -- We spoke to an electrician, who was doing work on our house at the time and he was amazed at our problem, and he suggested ways that we might earth the hot water system to prevent any that might be occurring. Nothing improved. -- Over the next few months we spoke to every "expert" we could think of. At Home Shows, Lifestyle Expos, and trade shows and the like, we spoke to plumbers, to suppliers of water filters, suppliers of other hot water systems and many others. -- We checked with all our nearby neighbours and although they were all using tank water and had hot water systems, none had green water or residue left on the tub. -- At our local agricultural show, we spoke to suppliers of many types of water tanks (plastic, steel and concrete) none of them knew anything about how copper could be melted by water. One seller of concrete tanks did say that water seems to eat the concrete tanks, but did not know why -- water just did. Industrial pollution was discussed, and when the lime refining works, approximately 2Km away from us was mentioned, it was decided that the lime fallout was the problem. Think about this and it becomes obvious that if lime fallout was affecting the water, it surely would change its pH to alkaline -- acidity would not be a problem. -- 28/10/95 The town of Kilkivan hosted a Waterfest, at which there were to be experts on everything to do with water. We attended with great expectations, and spent the day speaking to each exhibitor. None could tell us why we had contamination, but one did try to sell us a filter to remove hundreds of chemical contaminants whatever they may be. It is to be installed at the water supply point - the water still had to go through the copper pipes to it's end use. -- 24/11/95 Contacted the Shire Council Health and Community Services who can perform a pH test which cost $15.00 and would take 6 weeks to perform or a chemical test which costs about $60.00. -- 24/4/97 A water sample from our Hot Water System was sent to the supplier of the system for analysis. -- 5/5/97 A prompt was received informing us that the test performed showed that our water has a pH reading of 5.4, which "is extremely acidic and it is a COMMON problem that such water will cause corrosion of plumbing fixtures and water using appliances". The purchase of a filter (at a cost of $595.00) was highly recommended to avoid having the on the hot water system voided. -- A telephone conversation with a metallurgist from a copper pipe manufacturer. The resulting advice was that there is blue/green aglae in our pipes and it is a good idea to flush out the system often, by opening the end tap on the line and letting it run until it becomes clear. (Metallurgists know all about algae, but not much about copper corrosion.) -- Another phone call to the Council Health Department. The advice received was that the normal pH range for tankwater was 7. -- A phone call to our local Plumbing Supplies shop requesting advice on the "inline neutralising filter" as recommended by the hot water system supplier in the recent letter. .... The response, - "A what?". A follow-up call revealed that they might try to get one of these things from Melbourne.

"GREEN BATHTUB" was built in April 2002 by K van Riel*- estaria13@yahoo.com.au
Content supplied by C van Riel- greenbathtub@yahoo.com.au
LAST UPDATED-2.5.02