Causes of hot and cold water system failure

West Pomeranian University of Technology Szczecin, Department of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, al. Piastów 50, 70-311 Szczecin, Poland

^* Corresponding author wladyslaw.szaflik@zut.edu.pl

Abstract

The paper presents causes of the failures of hot and cold water systems. Most often they occur in the case of installations built with metal pipes and result from the use of improper materials and the adoption of wrong solutions. Failures are caused by chemical and electrochemical corrosion resulting from design and manufacturing errors. Further on, the corrosion process is briefly described. The most common causes of corrosion of hot water installations are discussed and examples of them are presented. On the basis of observations it can be stated that despite the knowledge about corrosion of hot and cold water installations, some of the them are improperly designed and constructed and exhibit high failure rates. The summary discusses the most common errors for different installation solutions.