Minneapolis water (house, water heater, live)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I don't really have much experience with the city's water as I just moved into a home in Powderhorn a few weeks ago. One thing I've noticed is that when I fill a glass with water from the faucet in the kitchen there are tiny white flakes visible. Does anyone know what these are? Are they unsafe to drink or cook with? Would attaching a filter to the faucet solve the problem or do I need to replace my pipes?

[typical_guinea_pig]

Hi slig, what are the white flakes like? Are they hard? There were some water heaters that were sold that were defective, and the plastic or pvc tubes inside of them would melt and drip, and these little sliver drippings would come through the water lines. If that's the case, the only solution is to replace the water heater.

The drippings can also plug the faucet, and if you don't have an aerator (sp?), the only fix is to replace the faucet.

Nothing else comes to mind at the moment, unless you describe the flakes differently.

Hope that helps.

[Thegonagle]

In my experience, the Minneapolis water supply is clean, delicious, and only has a fraction of the chlorine odor/taste that many other municipal water supplies have.

So, it's very well possible that your problem is largely isolated to your house.

First, there's a drain on your water heater. Hook a hose up to it and run it to your laundry tub (or sump pump, or out to the alley, whatever). Without turning off the the incoming supply to the heater, flush the water heater for 5-15 minutes. Just let the incoming water supply flush out the water heater.

Then, I would remove all aerators from my kitchen, bathroom, etc. faucets, and run every single faucet, hot and cold, including the outdoor faucet, for another 5-15 minutes.

See if that doesn't get rid of the sediment that you're seeing in your water supply.

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by Slig

I don't really have much experience with the city's water as I just moved into a home in Powderhorn a few weeks ago. One thing I've noticed is that when I fill a glass with water from the faucet in the kitchen there are tiny white flakes visible.

Do the flakes disappear after a few minutes?

[pepe1]

It's likely a lime residue from the filtration process. It's harmless.

Attaching a filter will help remove the residual lime, if yo uwant to get rid of it.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I think Pepe might be right. I think they appear to be lime or calcium which would make sense since the house was vacant for 4-6 months and during this time the faucet was probably never used. I bought one of those attach filtration systems and will see how that works.