Rusty water

[robmaz]

Hi folks. We recently moved into a new-to-us house about 16 years old.  The hot water in the tub comes out rusty. Since I don't take baths, it was low on my priority list of things to look into. But my wife likes to so here I am asking your advice.  It only seems to be the hot water  doing it. The lines are copper. There are individual hot and cold faucet handles. The water is softened with salt as we're in Lancaster PA. The cold water seems clear and running the hot water for a long time doesn't seem to help. The sinks in the same bathroom are clear all the time, hot or cold. 

Not to confuse things, but the basement tub did the same thing the other day but the bathrooms upstairs remain clear. Suggestions?  Thanks!   ROB

[Woodenfish]

Time for a new water heater.

[blackhat]

First guess is a galvanized nipple on the tub spout. It's not the hot, you turn the hot tap on first and it flushes the rust out the spout.

[MKepke]

You said you are getting rusty water from only the 'hot' side of the tub fixture.

Are you collecting the same amount of water in the same container at each fixture before you declare it 'clean' or 'dirty'? (possibly getting fooled by differences in depth or background).

My guess - assuming you've determined you have no rusting galvanized pipes - is that in your water heater, when a large outflow fixture like a tub filler is turned on, it stirs up rusty sediment in the bottom of the tank.  You may not be seeing it from low-flow fixtures like sink taps if there isn't enough volume moving through the WH to stir up much sediment.

Try draining several gallons directly out of the water heater and see what comes out.  Hose, large bucket, drain ***** wide open.

Also, check to see if the WH is the same age as the house.  The CW is that 16 years is pretty much the end of life for a conventional residential water heater...

-Mark

[MikeBob]

You said you are getting rusty water from only the 'hot' side of the tub fixture.

Are you collecting the same amount of water in the same container at each fixture before you declare it 'clean' or 'dirty'? (possibly getting fooled by differences in depth or background).

My guess - assuming you've determined you have no rusting galvanized pipes - is that in your water heater, when a large outflow fixture like a tub filler is turned on, it stirs up rusty sediment in the bottom of the tank.  You may not be seeing it from low-flow fixtures like sink taps if there isn't enough volume moving through the WH to stir up much sediment.

Try draining several gallons directly out of the water heater and see what comes out.  Hose, large bucket, drain ***** wide open.

Also, check to see if the WH is the same age as the house.  The CW is that 16 years is pretty much the end of life for a conventional residential water heater...

-Mark

Totally agree, flush the Water Heater aggressively and see what comes out. Samples from sinks need to be in the same size white bucket, same amount of water and let settle and look from the top down, and then stir the water and see what you see.

[fixtureman]

Years ago the house next to me had some kids drop nails in the plumbing pipes and they had rusty water they had to pull a magnet through the lines to pull the nails out

[CLETUS]

Probably a water heater like mentioned.... but first check your softener. Make sure it isn't on bypass and make sure you have salt.

[SignWave]

We had a similar situation, and it was indeed the water heater. It got worse after we had to shut off the water to the house in order to replace a leaking valve. I suspect that the change in pressure stirred up the sediment.

If you have rust in the tank, the next chapter in the story will be that the water heater starts leaking. If you don't have a pan under your tank, then by all means replace it proactively and make sure that you have a pan installed with a drain line. We didn't have one and it was a small leak but still made a mess. If you haven't done so already, check for a leak that may already be there.

[Bob10]

while I believe it is the water heater I would check the pipe in the spout first.  I have seen lots of old spouts that screw onto 1/2" pipe a brass nipple works best for that but I could see someone wanting to save a few bucks and grab galvanized

[robmaz]

Thank you friends, I thought maybe water heater but couldn't understand why it wouldn't be producing rust in the sinks and shower in the same bathroom. But understanding now that tubs use bigger supplies it makes sense. I couldn't find a date on the water heater, I'll check with the old owner. Thank you all.  ROB