Black Spots in Bathtub.

[ebb]

My house was just built in 2015. Within a couple of months we started seeing the black spots on the fiberglass bathtub. I thought it was either from a tub toy we had or something to do with the new pipes or faucets and would disappear after several more flushes of water through the tub.

But it is not going away. The water looks completely clear. We cannot see any black particles in the water. But after the water drains, tiny black spots are stuck to the side of the tub. Actually, most of them are even noticeable until someone stands in the tub and unknowingly steps on them and they show up as black smears. They are just like eyeliner in substance. This is not anything biological, not a bacteria or anything growing. I can't see how it would be anything deteriorating since it happened soon after moving into the brand new construction. It can't really be rubber particles because the water looks clear in the tub.

We don't see it in the shower or cultured marble sinks. Surely these particles would stick to the sides of the sinks? It just recently started showing up in the steel tub upstairs. I haven't seen it on dishes from the dishwasher or clothing from the washing machine.

We don't have a water softener. Our water supply is from a water district, not a well. We do have a Bradford White 50 gallon water heater. I wonder if that is significant since others with this problem have also had that water heater.

I am concerned that this might cause serious problem in my pipes over time, and we just built this house! I am also concerned because I wonder if there is any way we are drinking this stuff or cooking with it. If I can get some direction, I could probably get my plumber or Bradford White to handle this if I act soon since the house is not a year old yet.

 

[Reach4]

But after the water drains, tiny black spots are stuck to the side of the tub. Actually, most of them are even noticeable until someone stands in the tub and unknowingly steps on them and they show up as black smears. They are just like eyeliner in substance. This is not anything biological, not a bacteria or anything growing. I can't see how it would be anything deteriorating since it happened soon after moving into the brand new construction.

I would put a whole house cartridge filter into the the incoming water line. I don't know the cause of your spots, but such a filter is a good idea anyway. I might go with a single 20x4.5 Pentek Big Blue housing, with maybe a 1 micron filter element such as Pentek WP1BB20P . If it was not needed, you will replace the element once per year (or more if you dare) and find it clean. If it was needed, you might replace the element once per year and see that it was needed. A 3 valve bypass is a good idea, although I don't have a bypass on my cartridge filters in my well water filtering.

Watts WH-LD Premier Whole House Filter System is smaller (I estimate the 20x4.5 inch cartridges are about 6.5 times as much filter surface), and has a clear housing. It has a built-in bypass, which seems really nice to me. For city water, it may be more than enough. I have not studied the cartridges, but it might be worth looking at. As far as I can tell, that accepts the commonly available 2.5 x 10 nominal sized cartridges.


On your spots, have you seen any symptom anywhere except from the tub? No debris in any faucet aerators? Others on the thread reported replacing flex lines with metal flex lines. If the problem was all of the hot, I would think you might see something in aerators or the dishwasher.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Newhomeowner74]

Hi all,
Hope to restart this tread as I am having the same problem. We have a Bradford White hot water tank. The house was built new in 2014. We are having lots of black specs that smear in the bath tub.

The city water is moderate (not particularly hard or soft).

I am hoping a number of people have found resolution to this issue. Please help.

Thanks

 

[Grant McAllister]

I have the same problem. I've spent a lot of money trying to find a solution. So far I have had no success.

I hope someone can help. I have been trying to find the solution to my problem for over a year now. House was built in 2007. It is city water. The plumbing is PEX. The hot water heater is gas and has about a foot of copper piping coming in and going out of water heater. My issue: I recently bought this home and after I moved in I immediately noticed small black particles coming out of my water faucets and tub and shower. The spots are usually small, black, and often smear like grease. Often the spots can be more solid and kind of dissolve into brownish smear when rubbed together. I had my water tested (came back OK), I replaced the line from city water to my home with new copper line. It didn't fix problem. I called city and they tested water and found some of these black spots on their end and they replaced copper line to my house. I have also had a filter installed, which still occasionally catches small black spots. Now my cold water mostly runs clear, but not always. I also discovered that the expansion tank on my water heater was full of a greasy like substance. I had the copper pipe replaced and the expansion tank. The piping connecting to the expansion tank had some kind of corrosive buildup that was brownish and black, kind of slimy. That's why I had the whole pipe replaced. So, now the biggest problem occurs when I run hot water from the tub. There are always black particles. Often when I run the sink faucets, I see the black spots as well. If I go out of town the problem is really bad. In fact, for the first few seconds, I get what looks like rust coming out. It then runs clear, but has several small black spots until I run my hot water for at least 5 minutes. So, my question is: does anyone know what is going on? I have no rubber in my lines that I can find and the plumber have no idea where any rubber could be. Is my water heater bad and full of this gunk? Or worse...do I need to replace all of my piping? I am at the end of my wits. I hope someone has some suggestions.

 

[therealdune]

I have the same problem. I've spent a lot of money trying to find a solution. So far I have had no success.

I hope someone can help. I have been trying to find the solution to my problem for over a year now. House was built in 2007. It is city water. The plumbing is PEX. The hot water heater is gas and has about a foot of copper piping coming in and going out of water heater. My issue: I recently bought this home and after I moved in I immediately noticed small black particles coming out of my water faucets and tub and shower. The spots are usually small, black, and often smear like grease. Often the spots can be more solid and kind of dissolve into brownish smear when rubbed together. I had my water tested (came back OK), I replaced the line from city water to my home with new copper line. It didn't fix problem. I called city and they tested water and found some of these black spots on their end and they replaced copper line to my house. I have also had a filter installed, which still occasionally catches small black spots. Now my cold water mostly runs clear, but not always. I also discovered that the expansion tank on my water heater was full of a greasy like substance. I had the copper pipe replaced and the expansion tank. The piping connecting to the expansion tank had some kind of corrosive buildup that was brownish and black, kind of slimy. That's why I had the whole pipe replaced. So, now the biggest problem occurs when I run hot water from the tub. There are always black particles. Often when I run the sink faucets, I see the black spots as well. If I go out of town the problem is really bad. In fact, for the first few seconds, I get what looks like rust coming out. It then runs clear, but has several small black spots until I run my hot water for at least 5 minutes. So, my question is: does anyone know what is going on? I have no rubber in my lines that I can find and the plumber have no idea where any rubber could be. Is my water heater bad and full of this gunk? Or worse...do I need to replace all of my piping? I am at the end of my wits. I hope someone has some suggestions.

I'm having the same issue, there is little to no info on this subject, many tteads n posts being a decade old. This was the recent forum that mentions the subject. Thought it was bugs,sealed bathroom windows ,cleaned whole bathroom with bleach and they were back,gonna ask landlord if he has any clue. We saw them coming out of sink in bathroom while hot water was on ....kinda puzzled cuz they don't show up in shower,only on and around sink and in front if shower on bath mats and tile floor.... Really puzzled none of the other faucets are affected, not even washer line which is right next to hot water heater....anyone ...someone....scully.....Molder..?

 

[Ean]

Hi, I live in England (Great Britain) and used to have this problem with the black oily spots. We had a combi boiler (so no hot water tank) and when this was changed for a new combi boiler no more black spots. On investigation of the old combi boiler, it included black plastic type parts and several were disintegrating (our old boiler was leaking) and when you held the parts your hands were covered in the same black oily stuff as was in our bathtub and that came out of other taps in the house.

 

[BT1]

SOLVED!!!

We had the same problem. Replaced expansion tank for our water heaters, drained the heaters, no more black greeblies. Our plumber thinks that the rubber innards of the expansion tank has started to disintegrate. When we used high-pressure and hot water, we were getting bits of that disintegrated rubber. But after the new expansion tank the problem is gone.

 

[Reach4]

SOLVED!!!

We had the same problem. Replaced expansion tank for our water heaters, drained the heaters, no more black greeblies. Our plumber thinks that the rubber innards of the expansion tank has started to disintegrate. When we used high-pressure and hot water, we were getting bits of that disintegrated rubber. But after the new expansion tank the problem is gone.

Some braided flex lines have rubber inside that can deteriorate too. Corrugated copper or corrugated stainless or rigid copper tubing will not have that potential problem.

 

[Greg Bouwman]

Some braided flex lines have rubber inside that can deteriorate too. Corrugated copper or corrugated stainless or rigid copper tubing will not have that potential problem.

Hey all. I have this exact problem in my hot tub. After consulting many hot tub water quality pros I have gotten nowhere. Nobody had ever heard of the problem. The black dots in my hot tub adhere to the edges just below the water level line and when touched with your finger, smear like ink....or mascara if you will. I’ve had this issue for years and at first thought it was spider poop but ruled that out as it’s below the water line. The hot tub is 2 years old and has always done it. Any advice would be great! Cheers

 

[Lee Holleran]

Same "greasy" black spots -Gone (maybe for good??)

After reading these posts & talking to AO Smith water heater support the only
source of rubber in my copper H20 supply is the flex connectors. AO Smith said the Anode usually causes "smelly" water.

I replaced the flex connectors with flex copper connectors and no more specks in the hot water to the washer or the bathtub. I will give this at least several weeks before declaring a solution but all is ok after getting rid of the flex which was in sorry shape on the interior.

The specks,flecks I had were black floating which would smear on the porcelain
very difficult to cleanup. So far several hot water tests in the bathtub & washer
with not repeat of the problem.

Realize old post but wondered if you still remember this. Has solution prevailed? When you say changed the flexi hose, do you mean on the bath taps?

 

[Melanie9317]

SOLVED!!!

We had the same problem. Replaced expansion tank for our water heaters, drained the heaters, no more black greeblies. Our plumber thinks that the rubber innards of the expansion tank has started to disintegrate. When we used high-pressure and hot water, we were getting bits of that disintegrated rubber. But after the new expansion tank the problem is gone.

We have the same problem and a plumber just left and said that it couldn’t be the expansion tank because it wasn’t full of water. Did your plumber find water in the expansion tank or did you just have it replaced as an attempt to fix?

 

[Terry]

We have the same problem and a plumber just left and said that it couldn’t be the expansion tank because it wasn’t full of water. Did your plumber find water in the expansion tank or did you just have it replaced as an attempt to fix?

What supply lines do you have to the water heater? The braided supply lines have had some issues.

 

[TPROCHERENA]

We had the same problem: black, smeary spots, like mascara, only in the bathtub, nowhere else. A 1 year old Bradford White water heater.
We were using a clear plastic non-slip bathmat in the tub. The mat also was showing the spots. Took the mat out for two weeks for our regular daily showers, used a towel on the floor of the tub, and we saw NO SPOTS on either the towel or the tub. Put the mat back in, and spots appeared again with the first shower. We wonder, since the mat is a petroleum product, if there is a breakdown of the materials with the hot water of the shower. Not being chemists, we don't know, but want to report our findings.

 

[poopy]

I would put a whole house cartridge filter into the the incoming water line. I don't know the cause of your spots, but such a filter is a good idea anyway. I might go with a single 20x4.5 Pentek Big Blue housing, with maybe a 1 micron filter element such as Pentek WP1BB20P . If it was not needed, you will replace the element once per year (or more if you dare) and find it clean. If it was needed, you might replace the element once per year and see that it was needed. A 3 valve bypass is a good idea, although I don't have a bypass on my cartridge filters in my well water filtering.

Watts WH-LD Premier Whole House Filter System is smaller (I estimate the 20x4.5 inch cartridges are about 6.5 times as much filter surface), and has a clear housing. It has a built-in bypass, which seems really nice to me. For city water, it may be more than enough. I have not studied the cartridges, but it might be worth looking at. As far as I can tell, that accepts the commonly available 2.5 x 10 nominal sized cartridges.


On your spots, have you seen any symptom anywhere except from the tub? No debris in any faucet aerators? Others on the thread reported replacing flex lines with metal flex lines. If the problem was all of the hot, I would think you might see something in aerators or the dishwasher.

 

[poopy]

I have a Rheem Hot water tank. I had 2 issues. One was hot water did not seem hot for long. Two was grey or black particles that seemed greasy that was originally noticed in the bath tub was found to come from the hot water tank as source. These particles appeared to stick to walls of container float in water mainly though some were suspended and some sank. If I touched them they appeared greasy and smudged and was difficult to clean with soap. Upon inspecting the dip tube in my hot water tank I found it had completely detached from the cold water supply at the point of the dielectric junction. I do not really like the design of this diptube as it seems that if you overtighten the dielctric union it can squeeze the dip tube past the point of where there is a collar and then it goes in the tank which is where mine was. The black particles is likely the dip tube resting on the bottom of the hot water tank and getting heated by the burner till the point of melting or disintegrating as black particles.

 

[RZPhyxit]

I have a 12 y.o Rheem (GE) 50 gal gas water heater GEUN1011U00580 (leave off the 4 letters when searching for parts on parts.rheem.com) .I just changed the anode rod and ordered the $15 dip tube to have on hand. It has a separate black rubber gasket that goes with it. There is also a black rubber ring around the bottom of the tube that sits near the bottom of the tank. Wow! The tube is only 3/4” diameter and plastic of some sort (pvc?) Its purpose is to drive the cold incoming water to the bottom near the heat elements then the hot water moves upwards towards the outlet. If the plastic disintegrates, cracks, breaks or detaches from the nipple, the incoming cold water mixes right away with the hot so it will seem like you run out of hot water quickly or need to keep turning the thermostat up, up, up. Since the full length would require me to empty the heater, detach connections etc. as if replacing, I will already have this inexpensive part on hand it that’s all it needs (meaning not leaking/rusted requiring full replacement ) I can put the new dip tube back in and refill. The hot water especially if thermostat is set in the upper ranges (130-140?) must slowly degrade or melt these black rubber gaskets and could be the source of those black sticky substances. Pics of the new parts described above attached