What can cause tiny plastic crumbs in my water supply?

Users who are viewing this thread

Belmondo

Member
Messages
38
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
New Jersey
My sink aerators, tempering valve and shower heads are getting clogged with what looks like whitish swarf from cutting plastic, small fuzzy looking chunks. It melts with a match. Can utility work have caused this? I've done no work recently, my supply system has no plastic parts that I know of. The HW is from an indirect. I guess I should install a sediment filter on the main line, but it will have to be a big one, it's for a multifamily, 5 one bedroom units in addition to my unit with 2 baths. I've been told it's a good idea anyhow to extend the life of the standard water heaters.

Any ideas on what I'm dealing with, or even a recommendation on how to size the filter? We use 10-13k gallons per month on a 1" main.
 

Belmondo

Member
Messages
38
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
New Jersey
I would guess that it's the cold water dip tube breaking up. It happens. How old is the water heater?
Had to look that up, Dec 2001. It's a Triangle Tube. But this looks like "sawdust" of plastic, not broken shards. It would have to be crumbling. If that's it, what's the course of action? Can the tube be replaced? How in the world can I clean this crap out of the tank?

Makes you wonder about all the plastic going into our infrastructure. I've got 20 year old urethane rubber precision timing belts that crumbled off the cable they were molded on. I'd hate for that to be in something critical.
 

Terry

The Plumbing Wizard
Staff member
Messages
29,946
Reaction score
3,460
Points
113
Location
Bothell, Washington
Website
terrylove.com
When I'm draining tanks of that age, I often find all kinds of whiter powdery crud at the bottom of the tanks. It can be very hard to drain them. One tank must have had forty pounds at the bottom.
 

Jadnashua

Retired Defense Industry Engineer xxx
Messages
32,771
Reaction score
1,191
Points
113
Location
New England
Some deposits in a WH can turn almost to stone over time and temp conditions. But, if you want to try, the first thing you may need to do is to replace the drain valve. Often, people will put in a full-port ball valve which would then give them a straight path into the bottom of the tank. Consider, though, that unscrewing the old one may expose the tank to rusting - much better to try to do it when new. And, if the tank is that old, any prodding could initiate a rapid demise.
 

Belmondo

Member
Messages
38
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
New Jersey
Some deposits in a WH can turn almost to stone over time and temp conditions. But, if you want to try, the first thing you may need to do is to replace the drain valve. Often, people will put in a full-port ball valve which would then give them a straight path into the bottom of the tank. Consider, though, that unscrewing the old one may expose the tank to rusting - much better to try to do it when new. And, if the tank is that old, any prodding could initiate a rapid demise.

How much of that applies to an indirect tank? This tank doesn't even have a bottom drain, but has a siphon drain from the top.
 

Reach4

Well-Known Member
Messages
38,749
Reaction score
4,400
Points
113
Location
IL
While the material may have an internal origin, I would consider adding a whole-house filter on the incoming line. That will both stop incoming material and diagnose things. Comments below refer to my system, and you may well get by with a lesser filter. If in doubt, I go with overkill.

I like the Pentek Big Blue 4.5 x 20 housings. There are a lot of filter elements available. They have a big capacity. I would start with the DGD-5005-20 polypropylene spun 50-5 dual gradient 20 gpm cartridge. That would stop what you can see and would stop what you cannot see down to 5 microns. I follow one of those with a PENTEK-WP1BB20P (called 1 micron, but I am curious about that) filter. It is rated for 30 GPM for a 6 PSI pressure drop, so that makes me question the 1 micron bit. I think my filtering is probably overkill because I have a backwashing filter cleaning up my well water before it ever gets to the cartridge filters. I changed my cartridges after 13 months, and they did not look like they were close to needing it.

I would consider plumbing in a bypass in case there is a problem with the filter some day. I did not do that, and it has not caused a problem so far. I do have spare Pentek 151122 O-rings in case I have to replace that. A bad O-ring and no bypass would mean shutting down the water until I got parts. I have silicone grease for the O-ring, and that should be lightly lubed when changing cartridges. Tighten hand tight, but it is good to have the wrench for loosening. Note the water-filled cartridge is heavy enough that you would want to be able to stand close during the change-out.
 

LLigetfa

DIYer, not in the trades
Messages
7,493
Reaction score
574
Points
113
Location
NW Ontario, Canada
I assume this is on a municipal water supply and not a well. The water department often uses "hot tap" methods to tie into water mains without dewatering. It involves glueing, fusing, or bolting on a saddle and then drilling through the main. The drill cuttings make their way into some homes.

The other source for plastic shreds on a well system is from disintegrating impellers, mostly due to upthrust.
 

Jadnashua

Retired Defense Industry Engineer xxx
Messages
32,771
Reaction score
1,191
Points
113
Location
New England
SOrry, I missed that it is an indirect. Typically, without the higher temps of an electric element, or the surface of a flame based burner, an indirect does not cause stuff to come out of the dissolved water going through an indirect...it might have sediment, and a filter might help, but not deposits caused during the heating cycle. Some indirects may still use a dip tube, and that could fail.
 

Belmondo

Member
Messages
38
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
New Jersey
Back to solving this problem after months of cleaning out shower heads and aerators. Ordered a dip tube, but it's not obvious how to install it before removing the feed nipple. It's not mounted on a nipple like a gas heater, its just a plastic tube with a flare and O-ring, real ripoff for $37 shipped! I'd like to know what I'm facing before I start hacking. Do I just take out the nipple and extract the old tube? Or does the nipple have a secondary thread and nut to hold the flare? Other curious thing is it seems a 2001 mfr date is quite late to be having this problem, I read that it was solved in the mid 90's.
DIPTUBES.JPG
 
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks