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can copper pipe react when touching steel wool
metals reacting with one another
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Yes over time and with moisture and some level of current to create an electrolytic reaction between the metals. Under what circumstance do you have steel wool in constant contact with copper. Packing spaces around plumbing to keep mice out?
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My pest control company put steel wool against the copper pipe in my air conditioning system The copper pipe just seemed to dissolve and the freon leaked out. The air condituioning company had to crawl under the house and weld the pipe back together and refill with freon. It cost $1200 and I want to find out if the steel wool would have dome that.
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this will depend on what type of "steel" the wool was made out of. if the steel were mild steel, it woud be more active than the copper and the steel wool would corrode. if the steel wool was stainless steel, the copper would be more active causing the copper to corrode. this is called galvanic action and is seen all of the time when steel fasteners are used to fasten copper pipes. when dissimular metals are connected, the most active (anodic) metal is more rapidly corroded, while the more noble (cathodic) metal tends to be protected and corrodes less. this is why you will see a zinc anode on a boat. http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=470
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