Water treatment for OWB

[dparkguy]

I am nearing the end of my OWB install and looking forward to filling it up soon. I purchased a natures comfort and I see they want me to use their "water treatment" to prevent rust inside the tank. What have people found that works in their OWB's to cut down on rust and prolong the life of the unit?

 

[RiverRocket]

I would use whatever the manufacturer recommends or it will probably void your warranty if you would have problems with corrosion.
I have a Central Boiler and I used their 1650xl corrosion inhibitor as recommended.
I've been told that some people dump a couple quarts of motor oil or transmission fluid in theirs and it works good.

 

[jcl]

I also was running the central boiler product for the last two years has worked good. When i shut it down in march all levels where correct. Checked it last week now ph is over 12 and i'm over 30 drops on nitrate. So i"m going to drain it and refill it using Wood Boiler Solutions, treatment ordered products sat. read good reports on there system

as fair as putting oil in system. Id pass on that idea.

 

[tex]

Oil floats on water. I fail to see how that could prevent rust throughout the system.

 

[Joesell]

A guy at work is installing an owb right now. He called a dealer to order some hose and asked about some water treatment. The dealer said he could sell him some, but a few gallons of antifreeze works just as well. Makes sense. The corrosion inhibitors work in your car, should work in the wood burner.

Anyone else heard of this?

 

[battlefordguy]

A guy at work is installing an owb right now. He called a dealer to order some hose and asked about some water treatment. The dealer said he could sell him some, but a few gallons of antifreeze works just as well. Makes sense. The corrosion inhibitors work in your car, should work in the wood burner.

Anyone else heard of this?

In cold temps antifreeze is needed, in the event of a shut down or problem. At -40 C a shut down system may only have a few hours before freezing could become a major issue.

I have found that the antifreeze does contribute to maintaining a neutral PH balance.
However, I still add the boiler water conditioner every season. For a fews bucks it is good insurance to keep rust & cortisone at bay.

The boiler treatment is cheap compared to the non toxic anti freeze, so for a few bucks each season, I can maintain the ph and avoid a complete exchange of the boiler water that would contains approx 45 gallons of antifreeze.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Well... I use the CB treatment, as well as a small amount of a corrosion inhibitor chemical, which is used in the cooling tower/condenser water system in my buildings where I work. The CB treatment, or whatever your mfr. recommends, should work well, unless there is a lot of iron, sulphur in the water, or it has a real low PH.

 

[Richard@PM]

AS you can see from many posts on here that when a failure happens the most common excuse used by manufacturers is that there is no record of boiler treatment being added. I suggest to you all, buy the treatment from the company you bought the boiler from, this is their way of making sure the treatment is added, keep records of the treatment purchases, it is far to large an investment to not do it right.

 

[Butch(OH)]

Look at it this way.
You just spent $____ to install it and they want $_____ for their boiler treatment. If you ever have troubles while under warranty whos anti rust product do you want to tell them you have been using?

In my case the blanks would be 7K (6 years ago) and $20

My OWB looks same as new inside, steel is still blue.

Its a no brainer, well at least for me. You use what the OEM tells you to use.