Forum Archive: Posts by: ooutside

Earlier this year another member posted the post below about greasy black particles in the water, which fits our problem almost to a T, except that we think our contamination is from the hot water. Two plumbers have visited and are not sure what it is. Because the system is new and uses an indirect fired water heater, they have pretty much ruled out a rubber hose attached to the water heater. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Black Particles in Water
Categories: Plumbing

We live in a 9 story 5 year old new construction building in Brooklyn. Each unit has its own gas powered hot water heater.

This wednesday night while filling the tub for our daughter we noticed black particles in the water. We drained the tub to rinse it out & found that they were malleable & smeared when you tried to wipe them. They are smaller than coffee grounds.

We checked every water source in our apt (except the dishwasher & washing machine). Everything has black particles – even the toilets. The sinks and tub only have them when we run the cold water. Presumably our hot water heater has a filter which is why we don’t have the particles when we run hot water.

Most online research says that it is likely a rubber hose or gasket that is breaking down due to the chloramine that NYC uses to treat the water, which completely makes sense. Except the only hoses with rubber in them inside out unit are the flexible steel ones at the sinks (they have rubber on the inside).

We are trying to find out if everyone in the building is having this issue or just us. We never would have noticed if we were not filling our white soaking tub to bathe our daughter.

I know very little about plumbing & would like to be a little more informed before I call in a (pricey) plumber. Our building management co is almost useless. Has anyone ever had this problem? Is this wrecking/damagng our hot water heater? I am also trying to find out how city water gets into this building. If there is a filter, gasket, hose something that could be deteriorating at the source in our building. Does anyone know where to find that official info?

We are also (quite painfully I might add) aware that purchasing new construction 5 years ago might not have been the greatest idea. Please don’t rub it in. If we had a ‘do over’ button we would likely use it.

Any comments, suggestions, recommendations would be greatly appreciated on this rainy Friday.

Jen