My chemistry teacher and I had a mutual interest in my learning the subject. The interest was none. I did like the sciences when it came to mathematics. Terms like "empirical data" and "statistically significant" meant a great deal to me. The connection between math and chemistry was sadly lost which meant that some very obvious facts were not connected by me for a long time.
Earlier this year, a customer gave me a lesson in something that I should have known. A major customer for our water source heat pump hoses* had stated for years that they couldn't use our product because they rusted. Our product is ChamFlex® and has proven to be one of the most reliable products on the market for over three decades. Whenever we were confronted with this rejection, I lacked the empirical data to substantiate my belief that there was nothing wrong with our hose. The problem that they presented is called galvanic reaction. That's a nice name meaning rust. When two dissimilar metals come in contact, they will start the galvanic reaction. There have always been ways to inhibit the rusting and that requires metal coatings. What I did not know is that there are other ways to slow the reaction by controlling the conditions. Here is how it works:
The galvanic reaction has to do with the transfer of electrons and the different charges in the molecules of the metals. Don't ask me for a better explanation. Like I said, chemistry is not my strong suit. This transfer of electrons is visible when it creates rust. The transfer occurs because electrical current is going through the dissimilar metals. I'm guessing that similar metals just transfer the same number of electrons back and forth so they look the same anyway. The dissimilar metals will rust slower if there is less electrical charge. I'm told that the charge is less when things are ph balanced. Now I know ph balance from shampoos and never understood how that helped my hair, but I hadn't applied that to hoses. Hoses carry water. Water is a great conductor. Are you seeing the picture here? It sounds to me like anybody's hose will rust, but it will rust slower when the water is ph balanced. The guy that never liked my hose said he had big problems one time when he used our product because it caused galvanic reaction. I couldn't wrap my head around the real problem. Why my hose and not others? Then a customer told us what he thought happened. It has to do with something that nobody told us about for 30 years. It's called an acid wash. Apparently, when an HVAC system is first installed, it may be subjected to an "acid wash" procedure. I found out that the equipment manufacturers have written procedures that our customers follow to do an acid wash. Acid is not ph balanced. It's acid! I do recall something about acid vs. alkaline and know that ph balanced is neither one nor the other, but balanced. Our customer felt that this guy who never liked our product had done an acid wash but forgot to flush out the acid. When everything started rusting, he decided to blame my hoses to maybe cover his tracks. I was trying to figure out how my hoses could cause a galvanic reaction when all that time I should have known that it doesn't. In fact, our hoses may inhibit the reaction because of the coatings which comply with North American and European guidelines.
Now you think I'd have found a new interest in science. Unfortunately not. I'm still stuck on why that guy won't buy my hose. What are the odds that he can be convinced?
* Commonly known as WSHP hoses and used in commercial HVAC applications.
Galvanic Reaction
Re: Galvanic Reaction
