We seem to be bombarded these days in the merchants and the trade magazines with chemicals, chemicals and some more chemicals for heating system corrosion protection, but we are also bombarded with magnetic filters to stop the corrosion, that I would of thought the chemicals that are forced upoun us should of prevented, from getting into the boiler and causing damage, which seems a bit hypocritical to me, it seems that we are been manipulated to use products that do not work.

The problem I have, is in my opinion chemicals DO NOT work, well especially they way they are sold and used, installers are led to believe it is a simple process of pouring in a bottle of chemical and the magic begins, well it is not quite like that, systems need to be dosed correctly and checked to ensure they remain that way on a 6 monthly basis, it is not a simple process of filling and forgetting, over dosing will cause problems as will under dosing, all chemicals do is create a false protective layer on the metals to prevent corrosion occurring, in the presence of oxygen, but if not dosed correctly then areas can be left exposed, which will be attacked by oxygen and WILL corrode, the other issue in conjunction with chemicals is cheap materials been used, these can ingress oxygen and with the higher conductivity of the water with the inclusion of chemicals this will exaggerate the corrosion process.

In my professional opinion chemicals are simply not needed, water correctly used will passivate metals without the need for chemicals, here at Vietec Heating we like to ensure our customers get a quality system, we don’t want problems in the future, that is why we now follow the methods in the German VDI2035 and have been fortunate to find +elector GmbH and we now use their Clarimax to fill our heating systems, this gives our systems a low total hardness, a pH of approximately 8.5 and a low electrical conductivity, these are the qualities that the water requires to allow natural passivation of the system metals, on systems where we feel oxygen ingress could be an issue we add the Elector XS5, this adds even more protection and gives real protection to the system.

If you are interested in real solutions to corrosion protection, have a look at the following links
CLARIMAX 1200 HW
ELECTOR XS5