Rngr275
New Member
Evening all… It has been awhile.
So I installed a Takagi T-K4-IN-P around September 2012. It developed a water leak up in the combustion chamber December 2013 (15 months old). The heating coils and chamber were in perfect shape and they replaced the exchanger, no questions asked. Two weeks ago there was no hot water and I found a puddle of water on the floor under the heater. Upon inspection I found that there was a pin hole leak in one of the elbow on the out side of the combustion chamber. It is not an elbow fitting but where the pipe is bent as it comes out of the heat exchanger (it does this multiple times in order to redirect the water in and out of the heat exchanger). The exchanger was only 9 months old. They want this one back to try and determine why it failed so quickly but from their questions they are looking to blame the water being supplied.
I recently tested the water which comes from a spring fed 500 gallon cistern in my basement (bought an Amish house). Everything looked great from the test (home test). Total Alkalinity~120, Chlorine~0, Total Hardness~0-50. The only thing that looked "Not Ideal" was the pH which was between 5 and 6.5 . I tested the pH with some other test strips from work which are a little more accurate and it was ~6. I know this is a little low.
My question(s) is/are:
Is a pH of 6 low enough to eat through a copper pipe in 9 months?
Do I need to treat water with a pH of 6.
Any other ideas on why the pipes keep forming leaks. Takagi was/is highly rated but it could be a quality issue on their side.
Thoughts?
Thanks McD
So I installed a Takagi T-K4-IN-P around September 2012. It developed a water leak up in the combustion chamber December 2013 (15 months old). The heating coils and chamber were in perfect shape and they replaced the exchanger, no questions asked. Two weeks ago there was no hot water and I found a puddle of water on the floor under the heater. Upon inspection I found that there was a pin hole leak in one of the elbow on the out side of the combustion chamber. It is not an elbow fitting but where the pipe is bent as it comes out of the heat exchanger (it does this multiple times in order to redirect the water in and out of the heat exchanger). The exchanger was only 9 months old. They want this one back to try and determine why it failed so quickly but from their questions they are looking to blame the water being supplied.
I recently tested the water which comes from a spring fed 500 gallon cistern in my basement (bought an Amish house). Everything looked great from the test (home test). Total Alkalinity~120, Chlorine~0, Total Hardness~0-50. The only thing that looked "Not Ideal" was the pH which was between 5 and 6.5 . I tested the pH with some other test strips from work which are a little more accurate and it was ~6. I know this is a little low.
My question(s) is/are:
Is a pH of 6 low enough to eat through a copper pipe in 9 months?
Do I need to treat water with a pH of 6.
Any other ideas on why the pipes keep forming leaks. Takagi was/is highly rated but it could be a quality issue on their side.
Thoughts?
Thanks McD
