Water Treatment: An Overlooked Component Of Wet Heat
In the old days, except for the occasional potato forgotten in a steam boiler, water treatment was not even considered.
In the good old days, hot water heating systems were built with fewer component metals, and nothing resembling the PEX products that are now in use today for underfloor systems.
Dirty water and corrosion in pipes was accepted. And if a heating system needed repairs due to corrosion, well, that was considered normal. In fact, except for the occasional potato forgotten in a steam boiler (old time railroad men cooked their potatoes in their steam boilers, forgotten potatoes released potassium phosphate, which reduced scale formation), water treatment was not even considered.