Filling a Heating System with Demineralised Water

Following on from my previous post I will now cover filling heating systems with demineralised water which is a requirement of VDI2035, this is a good and cost effective option for the domestic market here in the UK

The product I use controls the pH during filling to 8.5, this is ideal for heating systems, these units also remove salts, lime and TDS via the resin cartridge, so create water with low conductivity no scale deposits and correct pH for a heating system, this is essential in preventing corossion, water with low conductivity will restrict the path of corrosion, even in the presence of oxygen, although we don't want oxygen in our systems, it just shows that even with an oxygen ingress, the system can still be protected with the correct water, although I would always suggest any oxygen ingress needs to be found and eliminated

The unit I currently use is the Elysator Purotap Leader, these are great units, as an installer i take this from site to site with me and fill the system through the cartridge, as per the image at the header of this blog, the display on the Leader shows me the conductivity of the incoming water (figure on the right) and on the left it shows the conductivity of the water going into the heating system after it has passed through the cartridge, it also shows me the volume of water that has passed through the unit, so I know the exact fill volume, each cartridge will fill multiple systems, but how long the cartridge lasts will depend on the hardness of the water in the area you are in, obviously the higher the hardness of the water the sooner the cartridge will be depleted, but down here in the South East where we have very hard water, I get multiple fills, so very cost effective, but I have confidence knowing that the fill water of my systems has a pH of 8.5 and low conductivity, unlike with chucking in chemicals, I have no idea what the pH is and chemicals actually increase the conductivity of the water, I have been using these methods now for over 7 years, I know they work.

Using the Leader is simple, just connect the mains water supply to the inlet connection on the Leader and then connect the outlet of the Leader to the heating system connection, so basically it's just putting the leader in the line of the quick fill of a heating system, so rather than the raw mains been put straight into the system, the mains water goes via the Leader and the water is treated

Below is a image showing the Leader is connected for filling a system

Once the system has been filled, then the question often gets asked what about future topping up of the system, well this is covered by fitting a purotap micro, a small unit that gets fitted to the wall and connects to the quick fill, the cartridge in this unit ensures any top up water is treated so the water is also conditioned, keeping the water in the system at its optimum, but like anything the cartridge in the Micro will deplete, so during boiler service the condition needs to be checked and replaced if necessary, it is easy to identify when the cartridge is spent as it changes colour from Blue to a pale grey/beige colour

Below is an image of the Purotap Micro, which comes with a wall bracket for easy installation

 In my opinion this method of conditioning the heating system water is by far a better method, you are providing chemical free water which will prevent corrosion, I will continue to use this method to fill my systems and I actually see this growing amongst installers as they face water quality issues with longer boiler warranties, this method is used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, they use the same makes as boilers as the UK, same pipe work and same heat emitters radiators or UFH, so something which i have heard mentioned before where some say this method is not suited to the UK is utter nonsense

I hope this helps explain how to use a demineralisation unit to fill a heating system and the benefits it provides in corrosion prevention, the next blog will be on the Elysator SorbOx

What is VDI2035

The VDI2035 are guidelines set by the Association of German Engineers, it is their method of water quality requirements for heating water, as a comparison its equivalent in the UK would be BS7593:2019 but the VDI2035 is way more in depth and scientific than the brief coverage BS7593 gives, there are also similar requirements in Austria H öNORM IN 5195-1 and in Switzerland SWKI BT 102-01, but what is common in all these standards is the non use of inhibitors.

There are 3 parts to the VDI2035 

Part 1 deals with Scale Formation in Drinking Water  and Water heating Systems

Part 2 deals with Water-Side Corrosion

Part 3 deals with Corrosion by Fuel Gases

So for my purpose of raising awareness in heating system corrosion we will only look at Part 1 & 2,.

I will not be going into full details, just an overview so installers can understand these standards and then we can question why these methods are not more widely used in the UK

Part 1 In brief Part 1 deals with the prevention of scaling within the heating system, to prevent scaling we need to ensure the hardness of the water is within certain levels to prevent scaling forming, this is measured in Total hardness in mol/m3 h and the levels permitted in the standard will be dependent on the Total Heating Power in kW (see my website link at the end for more details) using demineralised water will acheive this.

Part 2 In brief Part 2 For the prevention of corrosion in the heating systems the main points the VDI2035 document are concerned with are pH, Conductivity and Dissolved Oxygen, pH is stated to be between 8.2 and 10 these figures are the same across the regulations in Austria and Switzerland, however in the UK in the installation manual of some manufacturers we see the figure of between 6.5-8.5 why they would ever want a pH of 6.5 in a heating system this is acidic and would certainly lead to corrosion, I would never want a system with a pH of 6.5, to control the pH the use of filling units where the water passes through a cartridge of resin, this process will alter the pH of the fill water

For conductivity they look to have a level of  <100 µS/cm. the salinity and total dissolved solids in the mains water supply will determine the conductivity of the water, high conductivity of water allows the passage of corrosion a better route to cause corrosion in the presence of oxygen, so reducing this path by lowering the conductivity of the water significantly reduces the risk of corrosion even in the presence of oxygen

Dissolved Oxygen, Oxygen virtually always enters the system during filling procedures. This is because normal drinking water contains approx. 8-11 mg of dissolved oxygen per liter of water. However this quantity is generally used up (through corrosion processes) within a short period of time without significant damage occurring. However, oxygen can be harmful if it is able to consistently enter the system from the ambient air. This may occur due to a number of factors, such as partial formation of underpressure in the system, air entrapment during filling and top up procedures, direct contact between system water and outside air, and oxygen diffusion through permeable components such as seals, plastic pipes, diaphragms and hoses.

This is just an introduction to these standards and the alternative methods to controlling corrosion in our heating systems, both domestic and commercial, it's time we started asking questions as to why other major countries in Europe do not permit the use of chemicals in their heating systems (only permitted in exceptional circumstances) and yet here in the UK we are still told that chucking chemicals in will solve all heating system problems, but we know they do not, I personally have been in the industry 38 years and I see failure after failure of systems that have been inhibited as our British Standards guidance tell us to do, but as an industry we never question this, we just keep chucking chemicals in, why do we keep doing the same thing and hope for a different outcome, I think it's high time we had a grown up conversation on this subject, the industry needs to be made aware of the better alternatives to corrosion prevention that are available to us and we need to push for these methods to be stated in our regulations.

This is the first of a series of blogs I will be doing on this subject, I will also be covering the alternative options we have available to us for corrosion prevention, how to use them and what they do.

Further details on my website https://www.vietec.com/water-treatment