Faulty Furnace Woes Eyed In New Study

Faulty Furnace Woes Eyed In New Study
Soft city water and inner coil design blamed for problems

News staff scan by Katie Landeck This photo illustration shows the three failed coils the Corrosion Testing Laboratories studied.

‘I never had a coil fail until a few years ago, then I had to replace them one after the other.’ — Janice Magliacane, Gardner homeowner

Katie Landeck
News Staff Writer

GARDNER  For years, city officials and homeowners have been puzzling over why a particular copper heating coil used in many hot water furnaces fails early, developing strange pinhead leaks.

The question has been an expensive nuisance for the dozens of property owners who have replaced their coils one or more times, facing a repair bill of $300 to $600 a pop.

“I never had a coil fail until a few years ago, then I had to replace them one after the other,” said homeowner Janice Magliacane. “I put in a new coil and a year later my cellar was flooded again … then the next year another coil went … lost another one 13 months later, then this January or February I lost another one.”

At that point, Ms. Magliacane had enough and put in a new furnace, without a copper coil. The whole affair reportedly cost her several thousand dollars.

As Cheryl Girouard, who also replaced her copper coil several times before buying a new furnace put it, “it’s a lot of money going down the pipe.”

The problem has become so prevalent the manufacturer, Thermaflow/Everhot, as well as oil companies that maintain the systems have stopped offering a warranty on the coil – which sits submerged in the furnace – in Gardner. In other communities, the coils are still under warranty.

Since the controversy began, people have pointed fingers at anything that might explain the problem, accusing the manufacturer, Thermaflow/ Everhot, of using sub-par copper, the city’s water of being too acidic, Thermaflow/Everhot of doing a poor job manufacturing them, additives to the city water causing increased erosion, and the water of being too soft. Until recently, Environmental Protection Agen­cy testing as well as testing done by other outside companies came up empty.

None of the theories matched the science. Everything looked fine from the researchers’ perspective. It was a mystery. In the meantime, many homeowners with failing coils become frustrated and suspicious of the city water.

Some, like Ms. Girouard, have started to talk about filing a class action lawsuit, holding the city accountable.

However, a new report commissioned by the city and completed by Corrosion Testing Laboratories Inc., based in Delaware, may have brought some answers.

This report, according to City Engineer Robert Hankinson, suggests the way the pipe is manufactured and the softness of the city water both might play into the corrosion.

According to the study, which examined three failed pipes, the inside of the coils has a subtle scalloping.

This forms a small pocket where the water can eddy, forming tiny whirlpools in the pipe, a prime spot for erosion, said Mr. Hankinson.

Now, the city water — which meets all EPA standards — is naturally soft, meaning it doesn’t have a lot of minerals, such as calcium, in it. Theoretically, this makes the water taste and wash better.

However, minerals such as calcium leave deposits on the inside of pipes, creating a protective coating. The city’s water does not have enough calcium to leave those deposits. If that coating were there, the impacts of those tiny whirlpools may be less severe.

“The little eddies enhance the wear … and there’s no coating,” Mr. Hankinson said, pointing out that smooth copper pipes used in homes don’t suffer from the leaks.

Additionally, he said, distilled water, which is extremely soft, will also cause the leaks.

Knowing this, the city plans on asking United Water, the company that oversees the city’s water distribution, to run a “corrosion analysis on the water,” according to a press release from the mayor’s office.

In the tests, Mr. Hankinson said, United Water will add chemicals to make the water harder to a sample. If it seems to work, the chemicals will be added to the whole water supply. While the city maintains the coil failure only affects “a small percentage of homeowners,” according to the release, changing the hardness of the water will impact all users.

Ms. Magliacane doesn’t buy it. “This argument is flawed,” she said, looking at the report. “It’s grasping at straws. If it’s the scalloping that’s the problem, wouldn’t other communities have this? Hasn’t the water always been soft?”

She proposes an alternative theory. She believes a chemical added to the water by the city to kill bacteria is having a chemical reaction inside the coil.

“The most violent chemical reactions happen in heat,” Ms. Magliacane said. “The water is hottest in the coil, 180 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, the chemical reaction easily takes place in the coil, which takes the brunt of it.”

She believes the chemical started to be added at about the same time her coils, and others, started failing. Ms. Girouard was also skeptical of the findings, saying more communities should have problems if Corrosion Testing Laboratories is correct.

Since the beginning, city officials have maintained the failures are not caused by a chemical added to the water and say the most recent report supports that claim. In the past, Thermaflow has blamed the city water; however, they could not be reached for this story to respond to the latest report. Changes may be made to the water hardness depending on the results of testing by United Water.