Mold in water supply pipes

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Kiton

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I had a leaking kitchen faucet, so I decide to change the entire faucets, speedways etc.

When I was ready to throw out the old speedway, I notice what looks like mold in the line that feed the kitchen sink.
I did not throw them in the garbage, wanting to check on them later.
A week later, they speedway now looks like full blow mold growing inside.

I assume this not normal to find in drinking water supply lines?
 

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Kiton

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Hi CountryBumkin,

It does not wipe away easily at all.

I opened all the speedway connections I could, as well as the washing machine, and found all the other lines are clean.
My daughter reminded me that the kitchen counter installer, who also did the sink plumbing, used his own longer speedways, and that she felt they were used before by the way they were in his bag.
Could it be he brought the "bacteria/mold/whatever it is" in to the system since it is only where he worked?
The shutoff valve under the sink is clean. The old speedway and faucets are a mess, they have been scrapped.

I have slowly changed all the pipes since buying the house about 3 years ago. Can I be safe in thinking any bacteria would not likely travel against the current and infect the pipes?

I have ordered a .5 micron filter the kitchen sink which is the drinking water supply.
 

CountryBumkin

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I don't think you are seeing mold. The mold I'm familiar with would wipe away on your finger - it doesn't harden. Bacteria in water is not visible to the human eye.

You can get the water tested. There are some testing facilities where you mail in the water sample (I wouldn't trust a local company to test my water if they also sell water treatment equipment). I used an on-line testing co. recently (it cost me around $40. But price depends on how many things you test for) - you can search this forum for "water testing" and get a few names.

If it is hard water (calcium build up) it will not hurt anything - other than it could eventually restrict the flow of water. If you did have hard water, you would be seeing it everywhere, but maybe you haven't look everywhere yet. Washing machine hoses may be "too new" (less than 5 years old) to show signs of slow calcium build up, plus I think the rubber internals make it less likely for the calcium to stick .

Also, like your daughter said, the plumber may have brought some used pipes/fittings with him (with the buildup already in the pipe/fittings).
 

Jonathon

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I had a leaking kitchen faucet, so I decide to change the entire faucets, speedways etc.

When I was ready to throw out the old speedway, I notice what looks like mold in the line that feed the kitchen sink.
I did not throw them in the garbage, wanting to check on them later.
A week later, they speedway now looks like full blow mold growing inside.

I assume this not normal to find in drinking water supply lines?

I had a similar (same) problem when I lived in a rural neighborhood north of Indianapolis. White fungus would grow in all the toilet tanks and anyplace where the water supply would get oxygen. Home tracts were minimum 3 acres, very nice large homes in developed area adjacent to hundreds of acres of farming land.

At one point, I poured several gallons of chlorine bleach down the 6" submersible well pipe, hoping to kill the contamination - to no avail. I believe that farming fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, etc.) had leached into the ground water, providing nutrients for fungus to grow in the plumbing. How did I fix the problem, you ask? I moved away from there and let the farmers continue to do 'their thing.'

During spring runoff, the streams in the area would have great billows of foam on them that looked like soapsuds. During the planting season when fields were being tilled and herbicides and insecticides were sprayed behind the planters, birds would fly down to eat earthworms that had been turned up. By the time the tractor / planter made a round and came back around again, the birds were so impaired that they weren't able to fly away and just tumbled about on the ground. Monsanto Chemical farming may provide big profits to the farmers but it can kill the rest of us.
 

Dj2

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"I opened all the speedway connections I could, as well as the washing machine, and found all the other lines are clean."
- Judging by this statement, I don't think you have a big problem and perhaps your daughter was right, your plumber sold you a used $2 flex connector.
Don't list the house for sale yet, just install a new connector and check it later. For drinking/cooking water, use bottle water for the time being. Having a whole house or under sink filter is a good idea. The under sink .5 micron filters are good, except that they get clogged fairly fast, so it's a good idea to have a whole house 5 micron filter at point of entry in addition to the under the sink one.
 

Reach4

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