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I get rusty hot water in the bath tub, but not from any other faucet in the house. The house is 18 yrs old, with it's original 75 gallon natural gas water heater. Should I drain it, and maybe flush it out? Any other suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.
That's interesting, thank you. But it's inaccessible, and only one yr old.
Mrrational is correct. And if the rust clears up fast under flow I'd put credits to Navy beans that's the issue. Inaccessible? How so? Generally the tub spout just spins off leaving the feed nip exposed. Then you just spin it out and replace it with a brass one. Problem solved. The nip will be !/2 inch IPS (iron pipe size) with threads to match. An inaccessible tub spout sounds rather strange. Unless it's a soaker type tub and the plumbing comes up from underneath and there's no access panel on the tub. I could see that being more of an issue.
I'll try and attach a picture, it's not a standard type spout. I spoke with the plumber, he said he didn't use any galvanized or black pipe nipples. I just flushed the water heater, very little rust came out. I was unable to remove the anode for inspection, maybe another time with some help and a breaker bar. Thanks again.
I'll try and attach a picture, it's not a standard type spout. I spoke with the plumber, he said he didn't use any galvanized or black pipe nipples. I just flushed the water heater, very little rust came out. I was unable to remove the anode for inspection, maybe another time with some help and a breaker bar. Thanks again.
Anode? What anode? An anode implies a ferrous attachment. In plumbing, that means steel. There was one case I do remember where a client had rust issues, and just in the tub or some reason, after I did a re pipe. Because the attachment to the main still was steel under ground. They didn't want to mess with the main. Just the house piping. And that's the only place rust could have been coming rom. The tub is the low point tap. Might be the answer.
The anode in the water heater, it screws in from the top. I think it's either aluminum or magnesium. The whole house is copper, the main I just don't know. The house was built in 1998 or 99. It's a ranch, on a slab. I suppose I could call the water company. You may well be right. Thank you.
It's NON -ferrous. Like copper.
If you have RUST then you gave regular steel SOMEWHERE.
As said before... it's incredibly rare to have steel (galvanized or not)
used in any residential water piping --with the exception of the tub spout.
Apply Occams. Start with the spout.
And regardless of what the plumber said he did.
Oh..there's LOTS of old galvy still in use out there, but his house is a bit new for that. PEX has been the gold standard for quite a while now. I did have clients request copper over PEX before for various reasons. Some folks went down kicking and screaming from using copper. Once I started using PEX I was sold. But I still used copper at certain places even in a PEX system. Rehau was the make I used. I always used brass nips for water heater connections and tub spouts. Fashioned tub spouts from copper to.
Nothing is worse for a water system than galvy. I just despise the stuff. I've ripped out thousands of lineal feet of the stuff. I'm kinda with you about there being a galvy nip at the tub, but it could be one on the water heater or the connection for the house at the main as well, Ona90's house the might have ran steel from the meter or well, but PVC would be more likely on a house that new. So the steel culprit here is probably at the tub or possibly the water heater. I've seen lots of guys use 3/4 galvy at the WH. Guys ya figure would know better, but they never gave it a thought.
I'm kinda with you about there being a galvy nip at the tub, but it could be...
if the problem was showing up anywhere else...
Not saying to not be prepared to look further up the line...
but not before eliminating the most obvious (Occams)
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