Why is my home city water rusty.?

Question

This is the first time I have owned a home, and the first time i've had city water. It has stained my laundry with rusty orange stains and causes rusty stains on my shower walls and tub floor, a week after cleaning the tub.

The home has newer copper piping and to my knowledge there has been no work in the area since i moved in 8 months ago in the area on the pipes.

Answer 1

You have copper pipes so it can not possibly be from your pipes. Check your pipes carefully to see if some idiot has put in a piece of galvanized or other iron pipe.

Check your neighbor's water. Check several neighbor's if you can. If it is the same and they do nothing to treat the water, it is probably comming from the city. I said probably because there is a line from the stop box, near the street, to your house. Do you know, for an absolute fact, that part is copper?

Does it come out dirty from EVERY faucet? Is it both hot and cold that is dirty?

Answer 2

This may be caused by old iron pipes which should be replaced. It may be the fact that the city water system is old and may also be old iron pipe. The city water may come from a well which will cause the problem.
You can try flushing all of your plumbing by removing shower heads, aerorators from faucets and turning the water on for a few minutes. Clean the shower heads, and aerorators in vinegar let them soak for an hour or so and then rinse them and replace them. You can use CLR or other type cleaners on the sinks, toilets, and tub. Use a product called Iron Out on your whites, and light colored clothes to get the rust color out (DO NOT MIX WITH BLEACH, or you won't have any clothes left).
You may want to think about a water softner which you can buy at places like Lowes, Home Depot, etc for around $400. This is a real drag of a problem, but it is something a lot of people deal with.

Answer 3

is the rusty water both hot and cold? if it's just the hot water, do you have a hot water heater? have you flushed the heater? if the heater hasn't been maintained regularly it will fill with sediment and rust out. if you don't have a water heater and the boiler makes the hot water have that checked by a plumber or your oil or gas company. it sounds to me like this is what is happening to you. now if you have rusty water that is both hot and cold; do you live on a dead end street, or cul de sac? if you do, then maybe the city water supply is pushing the rust to the end of the line and it is ending up in your house. ask the water dept. when is the last time they flushed the lines in your neighborhood, and what the city water pipes are made of (copper or iron). if this is the case, all you can do is get a whole house filter to filter out the rust and sediment. i know this because i live at the end of the lines in my neighborhood and we have this problem from time to time. as far as the laundry goes, if you notice the wash is stained when it is done, don't dry it. rewash it first, so that you don't set the stains. another thing that i have noticed is that when i use bleach it seems to activate the rust color in the water, that is, the water looks fine until i added bleach. good luck with it and i hope this helps you diagnose the cause.

Answer 4

cities often coduct water flow tests with water mains from a remote location (aka water treatment/sewage plants) here is the 2 things that I think may be happening and somewhat how to fix this problem on 1 of them:

to help clean the pipe mains from the water mains under the street to do this some cities fire off a stream of compressed air down the water main in the area they are doin the tests in to blow out the pipes of rust and corrosion in the mains themselves when it comes through the water pipes in your home it will do that but depending on the size of your city it should only be on a monthly possibly every 3 month deal but there is another possible problem as well for the times when they aren't doing the tests

sometimes city water is often called "hard water" and it will do what you think and appears as rusty stains

"Hard Water" means the city water's source is either an underground well or in the case of my town in ohio it gets it's water supply from an underground lake discovered when mining for gravel and marble in my town

to fix this problem you need to get some kinda water softening system in central to southeastern ohio areas that would be Culligan Water Softening Systems

I'd be looking into hiring them or a company like them to help fix this problem it will work wonders and if you can't afford that and want a semi more expensive half done patch start stocking up on CLR water treatment sollution and start using it regularly although without a water softening system put in this is only a quick fix and will not fully correct the problem like putting in a water softening system would which would correct it as long as it is maintained well

Hope that helps

Answer 5

I would check with the water company and see if there's anything they can do; or if that's the way it always is. Or do you think there may be a problem with the pipes in your house? It seems like it would be cheaper if the pipes in your house were rusting rather than if the water is always that way. If there is nothing that can be done about it. It's a shame. You might have to move.

Answer 6

Copper doesn't rust, so if that's in your water, it's coming from up the line somewhere else. It could be the city's water main that's rusty.

If it isn't a constant problem, you'll just need to put a whole house filter in. If it is constant, you need to let the city know so they can replace the supply piping.

Answer 7

Since you already tried a filter you might have to drill another well. Deeper and in a new location. You might be right in the middle of an iron deposit. This is expensive. So if you can live on bottled water and just use the well for showering and laundry you will be alright.

Answer 8

Sounds like a leak in city lines or they or working on the lines, You may have to get a filter to put on your lines to remove the stuff, Bad cases is you have a lot of Iron in water and you can remove this also but more expensive

Answer 9

Like everyone's saying: there's a 95% chance that the town's woking on the lines. Call their water works department for more info.

Answer 10

its a lack of checking up on the pipe lines or they can't filter the water out.