Black Water w/particulates - hot side only - well

[Murphy625]

Hi folks,
I'm experiencing a bit of an annoying issue in my country home.

We've been having problems with black stuff showing up on our dishes from the dishwasher. It is now appearing in pots and pans when we boil things.

My diagnosis says its coming from only the hot water side. We used to have an electric water heater but I swapped it out for a power vent gas unit. We also had chronic problems with hard water due to a semi-malfunctioning softener system for the past few years. I fixed that several months ago.

I had the wife run the hot water on full in the kitchen and it was discharging a slightly dark water and there would be an accumulation of black sediment if you captured the water in a container.

While the water was running, I went down stairs and used a crescent wrench to tap the copper hot water pipes and when I did that, she said the water turned pitch black almost instantly.

We do have iron in our water. We go through a 40 lb bag of salt every three weeks and I know our water is soft because I test it with a Hach 5B kit.

Is this iron bacteria build up? There is no smell at all unless I let the softener run out of salt.

What fixes this issue? I was considering filling the pipes with vinegar or something but not sure how that would go over.

Thanks!

 

[hj]

Rug you finger across the black speck and see if it leaves a "skid mark". If so it is magnesium sulfide probably caused by a reaction between the soft water and the heater's magnesium anode. If this is the cause, either remove the anode, or replace it with an aluminum one. You will probably have to flush the heater to remove any vestiges which may have accumulated on the bottom of the tank.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

Can you see individual black particles? If not, I was thinking sulfur. But then you said there was no smell.

I wonder if there is a sediment in the incoming water, but it settles out in the hot water. Perhaps a filter on the incoming water would pick that up.

I would flush the water heater to see if that washes out some material that you can see.

I have an iron and sulfur backwashing filter that is . Removing iron before the softener would let the softener use less salt.

I am thinking that you would want to get your water tested. That may be informative. NTL Labs is respected. Unfortunately that test does not seem to test for sulfur compounds.
http://watercheck.com/
http://www.ntllabs.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=NTL&Category_Code=Homeowner well check

If you decide to do something with your anode, I would suggest a powered anode.

 

[Murphy625]

I pulled the anode rod and it was all black and corroded and pitted with the exact stuff we're seeing.

What are the consequences of yanking out that anode rod?

 

[Reach4]

Quicker leaking of the water heater. The purpose of the anode is to protect the places of the tank where the glass liner has cracked. If you feel OK with 10 or 15 years of water heater life, it probably will be OK. But if you would like to see longer, a working anode is helpful.

You might consider a powered anode. Seems expensive, but is not a high volume item.

Note that you don't need nearly the torque on the anode that you had to use to remove it.

 

[RoyPur]

Hi folks,
I'm experiencing a bit of an annoying issue in my country home.

We've been having problems with black stuff showing up on our dishes from the dishwasher. It is now appearing in pots and pans when we boil things.

My diagnosis says its coming from only the hot water side. We used to have an electric water heater but I swapped it out for a power vent gas unit. We also had chronic problems with hard water due to a semi-malfunctioning softener system for the past few years. I fixed that several months ago.

I had the wife run the hot water on full in the kitchen and it was discharging a slightly dark water and there would be an accumulation of black sediment if you captured the water in a container.

While the water was running, I went down stairs and used a crescent wrench to tap the copper hot water pipes and when I did that, she said the water turned pitch black almost instantly.

We do have iron in our water. We go through a 40 lb bag of salt every three weeks and I know our water is soft because I test it with a Hach 5B kit.

Is this iron bacteria build up? There is no smell at all unless I let the softener run out of salt.

What fixes this issue? I was considering filling the pipes with vinegar or something but not sure how that would go over.

Thanks!

I pulled the anode rod and it was all black and corroded and pitted with the exact stuff we're seeing.

What are the consequences of yanking out that anode rod?

I had this problem in my Mother-in-laws house also. It's bacteria coming from your well. Only way to solve her problem was getting a Hydrogen Peroxide system from Culligan to filter the water and put Peroxide in the water. If you pulled that rod out of the hot water heater.....get ready to buy a new heater....it will kill the heater really quick. like a matter of months.

I think that I actually had to pull the rod on her heater...because of the Peroxide.....but then her heater would only last for maybe 1 year. I read previous post about a aluminum rod......don't know about that, maybe that will help.

 

[hj]

My theory is that the anode rod is to "correct" for problems during manufacture and after a few months or yea r s it has done its work, so I pull them out and replace them with a brass pipe plug.

 

[Reach4]

I had this problem in my Mother-in-laws house also. It's bacteria coming from your well. Only way to solve her problem was getting a Hydrogen Peroxide system from Culligan to filter the water and put Peroxide in the water. If you pulled that rod out of the hot water heater.....get ready to buy a new heater....it will kill the heater really quick. like a matter of months.

That is not the only way, at all. It is a good solution, but one of the more expensive solutions initally and also on an ongoing basis.

I did well sanitizing (using http://www.moravecwaterwells.com/disin_test.htm procedure), and I have a backwashing filter that takes care of my iron and sulfur. It uses a little bleach solution only during the regeneration. I also have the powered anode, which I ordered before deciding to get the backwashing filter. I have no injection pump, and thus it is total silent.

Chlorine injection followed by a settling tank and a backwashing coconut activate charcoal filter to remove the chlorine, is very effective. It takes more space. It can work with high levels of sulfur and iron.

H2O2 is expensive on an ongoing basis.