Acid Neutralizers

Acid Neutralizers are installed to correct the aggressive nature and corrosive tendency of low ph waters in a well water supply. The ph (potential of hydrogen) scale is a logarithmic point scale that ranges from 0-14 with 0 being very acid (battery acid), 7 being neutral, and 14 being very alkaline (household sodium hydroxide lye). A 1 point change up or down the scale is 10x more acidic or alkaline, in other words a ph of 6 is ten times more acidic than a ph of 7 and a ph of 5 is one hundred times more acidic than 7. This problem water condition is very destructive to copper plumbing, creating a blue-green stain on plumbing fixtures, and causing pinhole leaks. In houses built before 1985, lead leaching into drinking water can be a serious health concern because lead solder may have been used during construction of the plumbing system. Anything made of metal is subject to being eaten away by this "hungry" water - water heaters, brass kitchen and bathroom faucets, and to a lesser extent copper drainage systems can also be affected. Surface waters that are high in carbon dioxide and dissolved oxygen have an accelerated corrosive potential.

The advantages of an acid neutralizer are quite numerous, they are a very good filter for sediment, remove some iron, make the water taste better, and only impart a moderate amount of calcium hardness that can be removed by a water softener. They are much safer than chemical feed pumps that inject lye (sodium hydroxide) for very acidic water, these types of systems can be dangerous because if they inject to much chemical or fail in the on position they can cause burns to the skin. Chemical feed systems are also messy and the chemicals can be hard to find - plus some pumps require priming when they run dry. We do not recommend or install chemical feed pump systems for acid water correction because of these and other reasons. Acid neutralizers are easy to maintain and only require annual refills with calcite and magnesium oxide.