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1) What are these black particles coming out of my water tap?
2) Are they a health hazard? (small children involved)
I live in a house that is about 40 years old. The hot water tap in the
bath tub often spews out black particles of varying size (speck of
dust to flakes 1 mm). These float on water.
They stick to the enamel bath tub wall and can only be removed with
scrubbing detergent.
They stick to skin but go off easily with soap.
They discolor platic items permanently.
There are more of them on warm days, or after the bath tub has not
been run for a few days.
What type of plumbing do you have?
I am renting, I don%26#39;t have any information about the plumbing.
This is California, Silicon Valley (in case this helps).
Usually apartments have pvc (plastic). Check under your sinks, look
at the plumbing, is it plastic or metal?
It is a rental house.
All pipes I can see, also to and from the water heater, are metal.
Of course there is also a large water heater in the laundry room.
Hello axel_s-ga,
This happened to me several times in the six months before my water
heater busted. The plumber who replaced my water heater said the crud
in the tap is one of the signals that your water heater is on its last
leg. Do you have any idea how old the water heater might be? Newer
water heaters are rated for life expectancy and have a permanent
sticker on them telling you when the unit was manufactured. Do you
have access to the water heater? If yes, find the date on the sticker.
You might want to discuss replacing the water heater with your
landlord. If you don%26#39;t get a new water heater, be prepared for it to
flood your garage or wherever it is located. Good luck.
~ czh ~
Could possibly be gunk. Like you said, after warm or non-used days,
the gunk increses. My suspicion would be fungus or bacteria because
WARM and moist places are breeding havens to these guys and if you
dont use the tap then they have an even better chance of growing
before they get washed out. But they could also be chemicals
(potentially harmful) because as you said, they dont come of your tub
or in other words non-porous things very easily and it discolours
plastic. But it could just be harmless so I would get a plumber or a
laborartory analysis of your water to pinpoint the source, cause and
what the black stuff is.
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