We have pin holes forming in our copper pipes and we also have joints that are turning green. This is spring water and has been tested to be good, with ph in the 7.8-8.0 range. So my feeling is that it is so soft that it is acid. I need to know how to filter out the acid. Ionize or what do you recommend. jp
If your ph is 7.8 to 8.0, the water cannot be acidic. Anything below 7.0 is considered acidic. The green you are seeing is common for a lot of homes. The big reason for that is when the pipes where soldered together, flux (acid) is used to clean the joint. The person who did it didn't wipe the joint clean after he was done soldering. I would clean the joints with hot soapy water on a rag. The pin holes may be caused by a high mineral content in your water. (Meaning 'hard water') Have your water checked for hardness. A water softener will help that if that's the case.
I seen this question and normally im not in this section, but, I am an electrician, and quite often when I see oxidizing copper pipes in a basement, (home), the first thing that strikes me is a bad ground rod for your electric service. it can also be a loose neutral in your panel box. on all elec. service (at least in usa) all homes must have a ground rod pounded into the soil, plus!!! they attach to the water line. if either a loose neutral or ground occur, the grounding system uses the copper pipes instead, causing severe oxidation, pin holes in the pipes, etc. so, make sure you check these things first, before you even think, its the spring water. p.s. before I was an electrician, I was a lic. plumber! well, I still am both. .lol. hope this helps ya!! BTW, its called electrolysis, the same as a battery in a flashlite, and it doesn't take a whole lot of current to start eating the pipes.
We have very soft, slightly alkaline water but we have had multiple pinhole leaks on the incoming cold water line. The pinhole leaks seem to get worse the closer the cold water pipe got to the water heater. When I changed out the water heater, I discovered that the plumber had used a cheap steel nipple on the cold water gate valve versus a brass nipple. Dissimilar metals (steel/copper) will generate a small voltage and cause electrolytic corrosion in the pipes. I also noted that the plumber must have been dunking the ends of the pipe in flux rather than applying the flux with a brush, the proper way to do it. The pipe joints were green and I found gobs of flux on the outside of the damaged pipe. When I looked inside the damaged pipe, I could see that the pinholes always occurred several inches downstream from a joint. It looked like there were remnants of flux on the inside of the damaged pipe. After I replaced the bad pipes and removed the steel nipple from the valve, we haven't had a pinhole leak for several years now.
