A sciencey question. I use steel wool in the kitchen, I use the soapy Jex pads. After first use, I sit the pad in a bowl of water, sometimes adding some soap or detergent. The pad is immersed. This way I can use them for more than one use. This method has worked well for years. Recently the pads started rusting much more quickly than usual. Mr buffy suggested it might be because we had the house running on bore water rather than tank water and there was some chemical difference. Our bore water is good and drinkable. The results from testing were:

ph: 6.52
EC: 690 uS/cm
TDS: 430mg/l or ppm salt
Iron: <0.02mg/l Fe

We’ve switched the house back to tank water and the rusting has slowed down again. Did we have a bad batch of Jex, or did the bore water eat the steel pads?

buffy said:

A sciencey question. I use steel wool in the kitchen, I use the soapy Jex pads. After first use, I sit the pad in a bowl of water, sometimes adding some soap or detergent. The pad is immersed. This way I can use them for more than one use. This method has worked well for years. Recently the pads started rusting much more quickly than usual. Mr buffy suggested it might be because we had the house running on bore water rather than tank water and there was some chemical difference. Our bore water is good and drinkable. The results from testing were:

ph: 6.52
EC: 690 uS/cm
TDS: 430mg/l or ppm salt
Iron: <0.02mg/l Fe

We’ve switched the house back to tank water and the rusting has slowed down again. Did we have a bad batch of Jex, or did the bore water eat the steel pads?

former probably, perhaps TDS of bore water increased also

buffy said:

A sciencey question. I use steel wool in the kitchen, I use the soapy Jex pads. After first use, I sit the pad in a bowl of water, sometimes adding some soap or detergent. The pad is immersed. This way I can use them for more than one use. This method has worked well for years. Recently the pads started rusting much more quickly than usual. Mr buffy suggested it might be because we had the house running on bore water rather than tank water and there was some chemical difference. Our bore water is good and drinkable. The results from testing were:

ph: 6.52
EC: 690 uS/cm
TDS: 430mg/l or ppm salt
Iron: <0.02mg/l Fe

We’ve switched the house back to tank water and the rusting has slowed down again. Did we have a bad batch of Jex, or did the bore water eat the steel pads?

Whoa. That type of steel wool pad has to be dried out completely between uses or it goes rusty immediately.
But now that you come to mention it, there have been times when it didn’t.

I now use stainless pads every time. One pad will last for years.

> After first use, I sit the pad in a bowl of water, sometimes adding some soap or detergent. The pad is immersed.

OK. From a CSIRO corrosion point of view, the key would have to be dissolved oxygen. If you pour tap water in quickly then it will entrain a lot of air bubbles, and the rusting will go fast. If you pour the water in gently and avoid air bubbles then the rusting will occur at a much slower rate. The slowest corrosion rate is if you gently pour in water from the kettle because the first step of heating in a kettle is de-aeration. Just a tip.

I was once asked by CSIRO to do a rusting calculation for steel in a lake. There was insufficient information in any scientific paper on how to do the calculation. I couldn’t do it.

mollwollfumble said:

buffy said:

A sciencey question. I use steel wool in the kitchen, I use the soapy Jex pads. After first use, I sit the pad in a bowl of water, sometimes adding some soap or detergent. The pad is immersed. This way I can use them for more than one use. This method has worked well for years. Recently the pads started rusting much more quickly than usual. Mr buffy suggested it might be because we had the house running on bore water rather than tank water and there was some chemical difference. Our bore water is good and drinkable. The results from testing were:

ph: 6.52
EC: 690 uS/cm
TDS: 430mg/l or ppm salt
Iron: <0.02mg/l Fe

We’ve switched the house back to tank water and the rusting has slowed down again. Did we have a bad batch of Jex, or did the bore water eat the steel pads?

Whoa. That type of steel wool pad has to be dried out completely between uses or it goes rusty immediately.
But now that you come to mention it, there have been times when it didn’t.

I now use stainless pads every time. One pad will last for years.

> After first use, I sit the pad in a bowl of water, sometimes adding some soap or detergent. The pad is immersed.

OK. From a CSIRO corrosion point of view, the key would have to be dissolved oxygen. If you pour tap water in quickly then it will entrain a lot of air bubbles, and the rusting will go fast. If you pour the water in gently and avoid air bubbles then the rusting will occur at a much slower rate. The slowest corrosion rate is if you gently pour in water from the kettle because the first step of heating in a kettle is de-aeration. Just a tip.

I was once asked by CSIRO to do a rusting calculation for steel in a lake. There was insufficient information in any scientific paper on how to do the calculation. I couldn’t do it.

and if you wet it and then expose it to the air it will rust even more quickly.

So try an experiment.
Control – immerse steel wool in water as you normally do.
Test 1 – immerse steel wool pouring water gently from kettle after first de-aerating the water in the kettle by heating to under boiling point.
Test 2 – immerse steel wool in water that has been de-aerated by sitting untouched on the bench for a week.

We have now been back on tank water for over a month and the steel wool is not rusting out anywhere near as quickly. I conclude it’s the bore water’s fault.

buffy said:

We have now been back on tank water for over a month and the steel wool is not rusting out anywhere near as quickly. I conclude it’s the bore water’s fault.

Or there is more air in the water from the bore than in the water from the tank.

Do you use the same pump for both?