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New Handy Site On Plumbing

Simple Tests for Pure Water that a Plumber Should Know

Color: Fill a clean long bottle of colorless glass with the water; look through it at some black object. It should look colorless and free from suspended matter. A muddy or turbid appearance indicates soluble organic matter or solid matter in suspension. Odor: Fill the bottle half full, cork it, and leave it in a warm place for a few hours If when uncorked it has a smell the se. Taste: If water at any time, even after heating, has a disagreeable taste, it should be rejected.

A simple semi-chemical test is known as the "Heisch Test." Fill a clean pint bottle three fourths full of water; add a half-teaspoonful of clean granulated or crushed loaf sugar; stop the bottle with glass or a clean cork and let it stand in a light and moderately warm room for forty-eight hours. If the water becomes cloudy, or milky, it is unfit for domestic use.

Drinking Water Cooling Systems

In a Drinking Water Cooling System for an office building, public building, factory, etc., the water is generally cooled in an open water tank in which are placed refrigerating coils. These coils may be either direct expansion or brine coils.

Where Carbonic Gas is used as the Refrigerating medium direct expansion coils are generally used as no harm would be done if there should be a leak in the coils.

In order to instantaneously supply water at any drinking fountain the water should be circulated by means of a pump. Sufficient water should be circulated so as to keep the temperature of the water at the desired point. The amount of water that must be circulated is dependent upon the length of the runs, and enough water must be circulated to carry away the heat absorbed in the circulating system. From three to six times the amount of water consumed should be circulated, depending upon the length of the water circulating piping.

The water circulated should be taken from the tank by means of a pump and circulated through the building as shown on the accompanying drawing.

The water supply to the tank should be regulated by a float valve so as to insure a constant water level in the tank.

If the water supply to the tank and the water return from the circulating system is distributed over the cooling coils by means of a spray pipe, the best results are obtained and a smaller amount of cooling coil is required. In water coolers where the water is sprayed over the coils, about 30 lineal feet of 11/4" pipe are required per ton of refrigeration.
The water cooler should be properly insulated, and the top of the tank should be provided with a cover so that the cooler may be readily cleaned.