Water heater burst

[AndyP]

Water heater (ballon d'eau chaud) split last night. Water 12mm deep across part of the garage (sous-sol).

Local plumber reckons our water softener is producing water that is too soft which is causing corrosion inside the tank. Previous water replaced de to limescale build up due our VERY hard water 47degressF which I think is 470ppm.
Do you know nearly every country has a different scale)

So no hot water and a whacking bill to come ( just as well I missed the B/S)

 

[Phil]

Sorry to hear about your mishap.

We have had to replace a few geysers over the years but luckily not damage to the house.

Cheers
Phil

 

[chataigner]

That is seriously bad luck Andy - I've had one weep a bit, but to split...? Was the pressure relief valve working correctly ?

 

[RogerS]

Ouch..on the bright side it wasn't located inside your house. Which reminds me that I must replace our internal stopcock as the only other way we have of turning mains water off is a mile hike across a field.

I don't follow the softener = corrosion argument.

 

[Rod]

Sorry to hear that Andy - does it mean the softness will have affected other parts of your system?
I suppose a garage is a good a place as any for a failure - our water cylinder is on the first floor so if that leaked it would come through the ceiling!
Thankfully that's not happened but had to replace one due to lime scale build up a few yrs back.
We did have a leak in our kitchen floor when a copper pipe sprang a hole within the concrete screed. Turned into a major incident as the internal stopcock didn't work and neither did the water company one on the mains outside!
Water co. did come out in the early hours to dig up the foot way with a jack hammer - which must have woken all our neighbours?

Rod

 

[RogerS]

Rule No 1 of stopcocks (and not followed by self). Every year, cycle them off then on then back off by half a turn from fully on.

Rule No 2 of stopcocks. Don't forget Rule No 1

 

[AndyP]

I don't follow the softener = corrosion argument.

At the risk of sounding like I know what I am talking about. My understanding is that to soften the water the limescale has to be turned into something else. My basic physics told me that things cannot disappear only have their material state altered in some way. In the water softening process a degree of salt is used to "remove" the limescale. If the setting on the machine is set to high too much salt is added to the water and corrosion can occur.
In blind tasting BTW no one has yet tasted the difference between the softened water and the untreated water in our house so the salt levels are very low and if correctly set cannot cause problems to otherwise healthy people (according to the British Heart foundation)

 

[chataigner]

Re corrosion - soft water is acid and the acid eats the copper. We were warned about the same thing re the central heating in a soft water area, locals said life of pipework will be around 10yrs - dont bury it in the walls or floor !

The good news is that you dont get lime scale build up...

 

[RogerS]

Ah, that explains it, thanks.

 

[AndyP]

Re corrosion - soft water is acid and the acid eats the copper. We were warned about the same thing re the central heating in a soft water area, locals said life of pipework will be around 10yrs - dont bury it in the walls or floor !

The good news is that you dont get lime scale build up...

David, We do have copper pipes running up through the walls. I am still trying to get my head around this corrosion business though as I believed the heater we have has an enamelled core (Acier émaillé).

Monsieur Le Plombier assures me that the pressure relief tank is not the cause of the problem, His price for a replacement tank over 200euros more than Casto! An Ariston 300l.