liebig failure

[jb-texshine]

CONDENSER:
3 yr old liebig,1" over 3/4",36" water jacket,55 gallon reservoir.

SCENARIO:
Once every month or two i add a pool chlorine tab to the water reservoir and allow the pump to run overnight. After doing this the day before yesterday i went out yesterday to find condenser water coming out of the liquor spout!

QUESTION:
What could have caused the leak? Chlorine? Old age? Flawed pipe?

CONCLUSION:
I gotta go buy some flux...

Ill post a pic of the hole when i cut the water jacket off to reuse.
Jbt

[RedwoodHillBilly]

CONDENSER:
3 yr old liebig,1" over 3/4",36" water jacket,55 gallon reservoir.

SCENARIO:
Once every month or two i add a pool chlorine tab to the water reservoir and allow the pump to run overnight. After doing this the day before yesterday i went out yesterday to find condenser water coming out of the liquor spout!

QUESTION:
What could have caused the leak? Chlorine? Old age? Flawed pipe?

CONCLUSION:
I gotta go buy some flux...

Ill post a pic of the hole when i cut the water jacket off to reuse.
Jbt

You most likely used buffered i.e. trichlor tabs, they have an acid added to them (I forget which one). I'll bet if you check the ph you will find that it is very low. Low ph and Cl will eat copper. The swimming pool guys (I was told about this years ago) see this all the time when people put the tabs in their skimmer instead of using a floater.

Just use an unbuffered hypochlorate i.e. bleach.

[jb-texshine]

Well i cut it apart and found it.
Forgot to mention i also let it freeze this winter also...
Where the pipe is freeze distorted look at the small pits. Not sure what was in them tabs... El cheapo from walmart @0.69¢ so probably got all kind of shit added.
So...just use regular old laundry bleach?

[RedwoodHillBilly]

Yup, just regular bleach. You could get exotic like colloidal silver, copper sulphate, etc, but bleach will work. In a DI recirculating chiller that I had on an industrial machine, I used water bed anti-fungal. That worked also, but I don't know what was in it.

[LWTCS]

Wouldn't hurt to throw a half cup of disolved calcium carbonate in your reservoir to keep the water on the hard side.
Calcium carbonate is what is used for pools to help mitigate the corrosive qualities of chlorine (bleach). Otherwise pool ladders and such would have a greatly reduced service life.

[RedwoodHillBilly]

That's a good idea. It would buffer the ph so it doesn't get too low.

[jb-texshine]

Cup of oyster shells maybe?

[RedwoodHillBilly]

Cup of oyster shells maybe?

That would work too.

[shadylane]

55 gallons of new tap water is probably the cheapest option

[jb-texshine]

55 gallons of new tap water is probably the cheapest option

Im going with all the above. Clean water first,good old clorox monthly,and a cup of shells.

[RedwoodHillBilly]

55 gallons of new tap water is probably the cheapest option

Im going with all the above. Clean water first,good old clorox monthly,and a cup of shells.

Perfect. I don't know about you, but up until last year we were in a drought (then we got enough rain to fuck up our property with mud slides). Saving water is a good thing.

[cob]

skip the chlorine. having done extensive research on building copper solar

panels for my pool, the consensus was that copper and chlorine don't mix.

I did not research bromine or salt for that application but they will both

sanitize water, as will heat. but chlorine will always eat your copper.

good luck.

edit; your water jacket is already compromised, start fresh.

[shadylane]

55 gallons of new tap water is probably the cheapest option

Im going with all the above. Clean water first,good old clorox monthly,and a cup of shells.

Perfect. I don't know about you, but up until last year we were in a drought (then we got enough rain to fuck up our property with mud slides). Saving water is a good thing.

My bad, didn't mean to sound like an ass
But it was good advice

[RedwoodHillBilly]

It's all good. Many ways to skin a cat (so to speak).

[jb-texshine]

Ended up replacing the water jacket also. Clean water in the barrel. New condenser cut but unsoldered. Going to read up on swimming pool salt effect on copper. Also got the last of my corn and rice squeezed out and ready to strip.
Good enough for the day.
Thanks for the thoughts on it.
Jbt

[RedwoodHillBilly]

Corn and rice? pseudo vodka? Never done that combo, what is it for?

[jb-texshine]

pseudo vodka?

Basically. Looking for either a very light whiskey or a vodka with a corn flavor similar to titos vodka but without the heads. Trying to get there in as few runs as possible hence the rice. Im aiming for stripping it then low wines in the boiler and a bit of water in the thumper to help lighten the taste. I used 60% cornmeal/40% rice. The rice was ground to 4-6 pieces to the grain and could have been smaller honestly.

[RedwoodHillBilly]

pseudo vodka?

Basically. Looking for either a very light whiskey or a vodka with a corn flavor similar to titos vodka but without the heads. Trying to get there in as few runs as possible hence the rice. Im aiming for stripping it then low wines in the boiler and a bit of water in the thumper to help lighten the taste. I used 60% cornmeal/40% rice. The rice was ground to 4-6 pieces to the grain and could have been smaller honestly.

Cool, let us know how it works out.

I do a pure corn, enzyme converted for a white, but then of course I'm cheap and white trash (politically incorrect comment)