Propane Fireplace Drops PH ?

Jimbo · Jan 22, 2016

I moved into a new house this year and we have a propane fireplace, which I have never had before. We really do not use it a lot , only to take the chill out on cold days.

I had it on the other day for about 2 hours and I happened to check on the tank And my PH, which is pretty steady at 8.15-8.25 had dropped to 7.6 ! I shut the fireplace off and have not used it since .

The fireplace is unvented so I'm assuming it raises the CO2 in the house which caused the ph drop?
I wondering if I had left it on longer if the ph would have continued to drop?

Anybody else that has one noticed this issue? Anything I can do about it?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 22, 2016

Yes, released CO2 is the cause.

how low it would go depends on how much CO2 you get building up in the house.

A drop of 0.3 pH units means a doubling of the CO2 level in the water.

You could dose limewater (kalkwasser) when you use the fireplace. That may help, but likely won't bring it back all the way.

LostInTheDark · Jan 22, 2016

I have the same situation with a NG fireplace. Mostly solved it by running a line from the skimmer out the wall for fresh air. That prevents most of the drop. I also crack a window an inch if we are going to have the fireplace on all day, as in the upcoming blizzard.

Jimbo · Jan 22, 2016

My tank is in a seperate room, would it help to close the door to the room and crack a window in the room? Had the fireplace on again and the ph dropped to 7.4 !

Not looking forward to telling my wife we can't use the fireplace.....

Jimbo · Jan 22, 2016

LostInTheDark said:
I have the same situation with a NG fireplace. Mostly solved it by running a line from the skimmer out the wall for fresh air. That prevents most of the drop. I also crack a window an inch if we are going to have the fireplace on all day, as in the upcoming blizzard.

I had a NG fireplace in my old house that was literally right next to the tank and never noticed any decline in ph. It was vented though. I guess they don't vent the propane ones but I'm not familiar with them as we didn't have them in the part of the country I moved from or at least I never knew about them.

sawdonkey · Jan 22, 2016

We have a ventless fireplace about three feet from my tank. I don't really worry much about ph song don't test it. We never run the fireplace for more than an hour at a time and I've never noticed ill effects.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 23, 2016

Vented appliances should not cause any pH lowering. They would more likely cause a pH rise by bringing in fresher air to replace the vented exhaust.

Jimbo · Jan 23, 2016

Maybe I'll just get rid of my ph meter, what I don't know won't hurt me I guess. A small drop and I wouldn't think twice but a drop to 7.4 ? Isn't that low enough to be a problem?

And btw it's a lab grade BRS ph probe that's about 2 months old. I even recalibrated it to make sure there was no error.