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May 15, 2009
Dirty Bath Water
We live on the sixth floor of a six-story coop building. For as long as we've lived here, ten years, we have had trouble with the bathtub water being dirty-yellowish, to really gross-brownish, often with bits of residue in it. Often we have to let the water run for up to an hour for it to be clean. Sometimes this doesn't work. Our super thinks it's because our apartment is the furthest away from the boiler and he has to let the water in the boiler run off. This also doesn't work all the time. We've asked building engineers and our management company why this is happening, and no one has ever given us an answer. Any insight into this problem is greatly appreciated.
Comments
Isn't it just rust in the pipes?
Posted by: mopar at May 14, 2009 11:50 PM
You're not saying if it's the hot or cold or both, that's kind of important.
Posted by: mod squad at May 15, 2009 5:10 AM
Also: only in the bath? Is the kitchen sink OK (assume you're not drinking this stuff).
Boiler water should not enter the main pipes. An hour runoff is more than rust, I think.
Posted by: cmu at May 15, 2009 8:59 AM
My brother's apartment has this problem, but if you run the water slowly - or not at full power - it runs clean. Doesn't pick up the sediment from the pipes if it is moving more slowly, I guess.
Posted by: mshook at May 15, 2009 9:00 AM
Whatever happened to master Plvmber? He hasn't been on in a while?
Posted by: slopefarm at May 15, 2009 9:15 AM
Ask the super or the landlord to drain the hot water tank.
Sediment builds up over time. . . problem solved.
Posted by: IronBalls at May 15, 2009 10:18 AM
Ah, marvelous. Thank you, IronBalls.
Posted by: mopar at May 15, 2009 12:13 PM
in my experience this comes from the rust inside the old black iron pipes. If you are getting this much rust runoff it must mean the pipes are set to blow. They need to be replaced with new copper pipes. Most larger six-story buildings do not have hot water tanks but rather continuosly re-circulating hot water pumped through the boiler. Otherwise it would take ten minutes for hot water to reach remote apartments.
Posted by: sam at May 15, 2009 12:30 PM
This is good info. I read somewhere once that you could get away with replacing only the hot water pipes (or was it the cold water pipes?) because they tend to corrode more easily. Well, this wasn't to deal with brown water, it was to deal with low water pressure from corroded pipes.
Posted by: mopar at May 15, 2009 2:56 PM
I meant to say, anyone know if that is true?
Posted by: mopar at May 15, 2009 2:56 PM
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks! The problem is generally with the hot water, and we don't notice it happening in the bathroom sink or in the kitchen sink.
Posted by: hulburt230 at May 15, 2009 3:34 PM
pretty good primer on the issue it sounds like you are facing.
http://www.randpc.com/ask/ate_Repiping.html
Posted by: arches at May 15, 2009 4:27 PM
You probably don't notice it in the water in the bathroom or kitchen sinks because you're not filling them with water, you're just running the water (or maybe your kitchen sink is stainless steel or black cast iron, so it's less obvious the water is cloudy).
Most typical six story walk up NYC tenement buildings do have hot water tanks, not continuous flow systems like Sam claims, unless your building has an older boiler that stores and heats water in one big unit, but that would still likely mean that sediment had accumulated in the boiler and simply needs to be flushed out.
It's most likely not a problem with the pipes, so long as you let the water run for a minute or two before plugging the bathtub. Most interior water supply pipes are copper which doesn't rust.
The NYC Water Board recommends that everybody run water at least a minute before drinking it anywhere in NYC, so why not do the same before bathing if you want clean water?
Posted by: IronBalls at May 15, 2009 7:55 PM
hulburt, a lot of suggestions in this blog!! You should call a Plumber to take a look at your shower. There could be an old bibb screw stuck inside the body causing the rusty water color. Is the shower dripping at all? There might have been a repair before you moved in where a washer had to be replaced. This is common and could be the cause. How long have you lived in the building? It would be a good idea to have the lines flushed in your Bathroom which lead to the shower.
Posted by: Brooklyn Plumber at May 16, 2009 11:18 AM
Thanks for your input Brooklyn Plumber. I should clarify for IronBalls that the apartment building we live in is an 82-unit, pre-war, elevator building, not a walk-up. It's definitely a problem with the hot water in the bathroom; no problem in the kitchen.
Brooklyn Plumber--the bath is not renovated, and there are separate controls for the bath water and the shower. Any more suggestions? Thanks so much!
Posted by: hulburt230 at May 17, 2009 3:55 PM
You said this is happening when you run the bathtub, what if you just run the shower and let the tub fill up with shower water? I assume that when you said there are separate controls for the tub and the shower, that you have four handles. Two up top for the shower and two down low for the tub. Let's try and narrow down if it's related to the tub controls only or if it's more than that!! Also, don't rule out that a repair could have been made some time ago inside the wall and possibly a galvanized fitting or section of pipe was installed somewhere leading to your bathtub piping.
Posted by: Brooklyn Plumber at May 17, 2009 7:30 PM
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