Anonymous Poster
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2005
- Messages
- 29,678
I've constantly been amazed at the depth and breadth of knowledge available from those who post to TBN, so I thought I'd toss my strange water problem out and see if some kind soul can figure out what is going on. I'll apologize in advance for the length of this post, but it seems better to lay out as many facts as possible, although I'm sure many of them will turn out to be irrelevant in the end.
In a nutshell, we are getting a lot of fine black grit out of the four Moen faucets in the bathrooms, all of which are the same model, but we are not getting it out of the Deltas in the rest of the house, except as an occasional fleck every now and then. Nor are we getting it out of the bathtub spouts or shower heads, except the occasional odd fleck. Both the hot and cold sides do it.
The grit is heavier than water and tends to stick to the bottom of the bathroom sinks. It is fine enough to pass easily through the Moen aerators, even though they have several screens in series.
By a lot, I mean that turning on any bathroom sink and running the water for about three seconds produces twenty to thirty visible flecks which are very easy to see in the white basins. If I pour an equivalent amount from the kitchen Deltas, or more, into a clean container and then pour it into a white bathroom sink, I will get one or two flecks at most. Most of the time, I don't get any.
I pulled the supply lines off of a bathroom sink and drew pints of water. I did this several times and got one or two flecks in one of the pints. Other than that, nothing.
From this, I deduced that the Moens were going, unlikely as it seemed, and called their customer support. The gent there thought that the o-rings might be deteriorating, and sent me four cartridge rebuild kits, at no charge I might add. Great company.
Rebuilding the faucet cartridges made absolutely no difference.
Draining the water heater made no difference, and revealed no sediment.
A few days ago the well's submersible pump died (the motor was locked, the actual pump itself was still OK). We replaced the whole thing. We are still getting the grit.
Other than the grit, we have wonderful water. It is crystal clear, odorless, not too hard, and tastes great. We have no sink/tub staining problems, no do we have any laundry problems. From this, I've pretty well ruled out iron or manganese. We have tested for bacteria, nitrates, and nitrites. All tests were negative. There are no filters anywhere.
I've searched the net looking for anything that matches these symptoms without success. The closest thing that matches is a dying charcoal filter, but we have no filters of any kind.
The grit started showing up shortly after we moved in, a small amount at first, then increasing and finally stabilizing at what we have now. I am at my wits end trying to figure this out. We could live with the occasional fleck we get from the other faucets and the tubs, but the quantity coming from the Moens is disturbing to say the least.
If anyone has any ideas on what this might be, or why it is coming out of the Moens in much greater quantity than elsewhere, I would appreciate hearing what you have to say.
I'm including a detailed history of the house and its construction in the hope it might help.
Thanks for reading, and helping if you can.
SnowRidge
House:
Two story built 7-8 years ago on crawl space and slab, puchased this past November. The previous owner seems as mystified as we are.
Location:
Stockton Valley section of the Tennessee Valley, Loudon County, not too far from Knoxville.
Moen faucets:
Two in master bath upstairs, one in guest bath upstairs, one in half bath downstairs.
Deltas:
Two downstairs in kitchen, one heavily used, one hardly ever used.
Well:
6 inch with brand new 1HP, 10GPM pump at 360 feet. Total depth unknown. Drilled when house was built. Drop pipe, schedule 80 PVC with galvanized couplings.
Plumbing:
PVC from well to house where it transitions to copper. Pressure tank on a galvanized (I think) T in crawl space. Pressure tank replaced about two years ago due to a ruptured bladder. (I am going to move this thing out of the crawl space at the earliest opportunity.) All sinks have smooth plastic piping between the faucets and the shutoffs.
Pressure:
Set at 30-50, roughly. Doesn't exceed 50.
Water heater:
About two years old also.
In a nutshell, we are getting a lot of fine black grit out of the four Moen faucets in the bathrooms, all of which are the same model, but we are not getting it out of the Deltas in the rest of the house, except as an occasional fleck every now and then. Nor are we getting it out of the bathtub spouts or shower heads, except the occasional odd fleck. Both the hot and cold sides do it.
The grit is heavier than water and tends to stick to the bottom of the bathroom sinks. It is fine enough to pass easily through the Moen aerators, even though they have several screens in series.
By a lot, I mean that turning on any bathroom sink and running the water for about three seconds produces twenty to thirty visible flecks which are very easy to see in the white basins. If I pour an equivalent amount from the kitchen Deltas, or more, into a clean container and then pour it into a white bathroom sink, I will get one or two flecks at most. Most of the time, I don't get any.
I pulled the supply lines off of a bathroom sink and drew pints of water. I did this several times and got one or two flecks in one of the pints. Other than that, nothing.
From this, I deduced that the Moens were going, unlikely as it seemed, and called their customer support. The gent there thought that the o-rings might be deteriorating, and sent me four cartridge rebuild kits, at no charge I might add. Great company.
Rebuilding the faucet cartridges made absolutely no difference.
Draining the water heater made no difference, and revealed no sediment.
A few days ago the well's submersible pump died (the motor was locked, the actual pump itself was still OK). We replaced the whole thing. We are still getting the grit.
Other than the grit, we have wonderful water. It is crystal clear, odorless, not too hard, and tastes great. We have no sink/tub staining problems, no do we have any laundry problems. From this, I've pretty well ruled out iron or manganese. We have tested for bacteria, nitrates, and nitrites. All tests were negative. There are no filters anywhere.
I've searched the net looking for anything that matches these symptoms without success. The closest thing that matches is a dying charcoal filter, but we have no filters of any kind.
The grit started showing up shortly after we moved in, a small amount at first, then increasing and finally stabilizing at what we have now. I am at my wits end trying to figure this out. We could live with the occasional fleck we get from the other faucets and the tubs, but the quantity coming from the Moens is disturbing to say the least.
If anyone has any ideas on what this might be, or why it is coming out of the Moens in much greater quantity than elsewhere, I would appreciate hearing what you have to say.
I'm including a detailed history of the house and its construction in the hope it might help.
Thanks for reading, and helping if you can.
SnowRidge
House:
Two story built 7-8 years ago on crawl space and slab, puchased this past November. The previous owner seems as mystified as we are.
Location:
Stockton Valley section of the Tennessee Valley, Loudon County, not too far from Knoxville.
Moen faucets:
Two in master bath upstairs, one in guest bath upstairs, one in half bath downstairs.
Deltas:
Two downstairs in kitchen, one heavily used, one hardly ever used.
Well:
6 inch with brand new 1HP, 10GPM pump at 360 feet. Total depth unknown. Drilled when house was built. Drop pipe, schedule 80 PVC with galvanized couplings.
Plumbing:
PVC from well to house where it transitions to copper. Pressure tank on a galvanized (I think) T in crawl space. Pressure tank replaced about two years ago due to a ruptured bladder. (I am going to move this thing out of the crawl space at the earliest opportunity.) All sinks have smooth plastic piping between the faucets and the shutoffs.
Pressure:
Set at 30-50, roughly. Doesn't exceed 50.
Water heater:
About two years old also.
