thames water are rubish

[sam c]

so ive just got off the phone to thames water having waited 10 mins for some one to answer and they dont seem to have a reccent total alkalinity figure to give me. suprise suprise.

they did say that they would speak to someone else and call back within a working day or some thing like that. weather or not they will have the answer i dont know.

the only thing they were able to give me today was the P.H of my water.7.3. is there any way of working out the total alkalinity from this or the amount of CRS i would need to add per litre?

[sam c]

cheers for that i will take a lokk at that thread.

thanks

[sam c]

so thames water just rang me back with a total alkalinity figure. however they couldn't give me one for my water supply but gave me one from september 2008 from a village up the road not too far away which was 112 HC03. the thing is they also gave me one from the same time in a place about double the distance away from the first which was 274 HC03.

im confused. how can these be so different if they are only 5 or 6 miles apart if that? i know that i have very hard water in my area so i need to do something about it but im not sure which one to go by. or should i take the middle of the two? any advice would be great.

thanks

sam

[Trunky]

It can be that different due to many factors and your local water authority should know the figures by your postcode - maybe try emailing them?

Bristol water gave my water info and it apparently only applies to the 'zone' I am in and the 30 odd thousand people it covers.

Water Supply Zone :213
Zone Population :30,498

Alkalinity as CaCO3 156.157mg/l CaCO3
Alkalinity as HCO3 190.529mg/l HCO3

So far, I have not fiddled with water treatments and have no complaints.

[adm]

I'd say just go and buy the test kit from Chris's link......

They are cheap, easy to use and we have verified the results against other testing methods.

Takes about 5 minutes to do and you'll know your TA for sure then!

[coatesg]

I got the same answer from Thames too - apparently "not something we'd usually test for".

If it helps (if you're round our way) then the Alkalinity for Oxford/Witney has been (over the last 6 months) between 180 and 200ppm as CaCO3. Though, it can vary depending on where the water is drawn from - sometimes, the source will switch and the alkalinity can vary in this way.

[sam c]

thanks for that but i have gone an ordered the kit to be sure.

[Chiltern Brewer]

I had made an educated guess that my alkalinity (High Wycombe area) was ~250ppm as CaCO3, and I was adding 1ml of CRS per litre. Then I discovered a tropical/marine fish keeper at work who kindly tested my water's alkalinity and calcium level using his Salifert test kits. Strangely he got 15dkH/267ppm for the alkalinity which must be one of the highest levels in the UK? Calcium was 100ppm which is what I expected. Anyhow I had actually decreased my CRS dosing level to 0.83ml per litre for the last brew (based on checking the mash pH on the previous brew and finding it well below 5.3) and I haven't noted any negative issues.