We purchased a little rural cottage last year and redid the plumbing with Uponor aquapex, Uponor hot and cold copper manifolds (hot has never been used and only air tested). The cold manifold went live in August 2014. Normal kitchen/bathroom(although no bath/shower yet) use, one load of laundry each week and hose bib that was used to back route our supply water while we dug out trench. Over the last month we have had two Brasscraft KT series(1/2" FIP x 3/8" comp) angle stops leak through the solid body(where the 1/2 FIP threads are located). I found that the chrome coating inside the angle stop had been eaten away, so I decided to look further. Inside the copper manifold there is white sediment(also in the toilet tank) and green/blue corrosion. I removed a threaded Uponor fitting and found forest green, white corrosion as well as brass discoloration. I had my water tested at a lab and it looks to be slightly acidic, and the hardness was under 6 and everything else looks ok. I am on a well. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a link to the photos and water report. I was going to post them on the thread, but wanted to keep them as large as possible.


[s1382.photobucket.com]

It may be different to other viewers, but I have absolutely no idea what the pictures show. The right three on the third row appear to be adapters but I do not see any threads on them. What is the Q-tip doing? What are the things on the top row?

I have been using Uponor PEX for about twenty years and thru "live and learn" discovered that it (the brass fittings) does not hold up well on anything but municipal water. The fittings will corrode while the tube will last forever. There are plastic fittings now available that have replaced the brass.

HJ,
Past the water test, the first four photos(two repeats) are of the angle stop internals where the chrome has been "eaten away" and the brass is also corroding. There is a small amount of blue/green(turquoise) staining.

The two photos that are a close up view are inside the manifolds copper pipe where is white sediment and blue/green(turquoise) corrosion on the walls.

The five before the Q-tip(two repeats) show the pex fitting with heavy forest green corrosion and discolored/spotty brass. There is also white build up towards the end of the fitting

The Q-Tip shows yellow where I swabbed the green. The last photo is of the manifold, you can see a dark ring(through the pipe) at the tip of the fitting where the brass has darkened. All are like this.

Sorry for the photo mess, I'm having a heck of a time using Photobucket on iphone.

I had hoped the first angle stop leak was just a crack from being overtightened and the water worked it's way through, but the two in a 10 day period prompted me to investigate further. Do these colors in the pipe generally mean anything? The forest green in the last photos concerned me most. I used the brass as Uponor said it would be best for my needs. I can change out most of the brass to Uponor's EP fittings, but will this happen to our fixtures and washing machine. What can be do to stop this?



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The system and all the components will last longer and perform better if you can get the acidity down.

Would a acid neutralizer work well for this? I was looking into a Aqua-Pure APUN201, would this be something to consider?

An acid neutralizer will solve the pH problem. But it also raises the hardness. You will need a water softener after the neutralizer, and a UV light never hurts. The leaks won't stop with the neutralizer as the damage has been done. If you are able to replace the brass fittings with the plastic fittings, it would be best.

Is the dark "Forest" green corrosion normal, normally it's just a turquoise I've seen? I'm going to send the fitting to Uponor at their request, their engineers want to look at it. Also order the acid neutralizer and test the hard water from there.