Another water question

[Ed62]

We have mostly copper piping, but there is still a little bit of galvanized pipe going to our tub. Every so often, when I turn on the cold water, it comes out "muddy" looking. After letting it run for a minute or so, it clears up. This is the only place in the house where this happens unless I have the pump turned off for a while (well water). Does anyone have an idea what might be causing this? I *hate* plumbing!

Ed

[Pappy]

Take a look at the pipe in the bath tub spout.

[Ed62]

Thanks for the reply. I know where to look, or at least where to start. I'm wondering what would cause the problem.

Ed

[TheRic]

I would start at the galvanized pipe and get rid of it. I have seen galvanized pipe to start to rust. Normally around the pipe threads. All it takes is a little bit to come off / or not a good coating to start with. And the rust area will get bigger and bigger.

I'll bet you will notice the water is darker the longer it sits. For example after a couple of hours it's only a little rusty/muddy. After a couple of days of sitting it is a lot darker. The amount of water that is clear before, it gets dark is about the amount of water that would be in a pipe from the faucet to the galvanized pipe.

Saw one home that had copper up to one elbow, they put in a galvanized elbow, then copper again to the faucet. The water would come out OK for the first several seconds, then get nasty for a few seconds, then clear up. I visualized the amount of water first coming out, and the length of the nasty water, to give me a clue were to start looking. That is when I found it.

If going from galvanized to copper, you need a dielectric union. Or you will have problems. Which could be causing the galvanize to fleck off. You have two type of metal with a liquid, you get electrolysis. IMHO replace the galvanized with copper and be done with it.

[Ed62]

I was afraid someone would say something like that. The galvanized pipe is not inaccessible, but it's clearly gonna be a job getting to it with enough room to work. Thanks for the post.

Ed

[TheRic]

Sorry to be the bearer of the bad news. We always hope it's a quick, easy, inexpensive fix. To bad reality has to come into play.

[Crash2510]

we also have well water an this happened every so often when some rust etc. settled in the pipes.

as far as replacing the pipe if it ain't broke don't fix it. Check the joints if you can and if they don't look too rusty and corroded don't worry about it

[L. D. Jeffries]

Been on well water since we built our currant house out in the "country". I found that even with all plastic/copper plumbing we still got a bit of "cloudy: water especially if not used for say a "long weekend". Most likely it is fine sediment that all well water seems to have after the pump is active after a "not used" period. Solved the problem by putting in a "sediment" filter before the main plumbing enters the house system. Needs changing every 3 or 4 months, but now ALL the water is sparkling clear. Any good hardware store sells them for probably under $50.