dirty water

[jon61]

My bathtub in the master bedroom has what appears to be sediment or rust in the water. It is worse when you first turn it on then it appears to be better, but not really. The problem has been going on for a while and I had a new hot water tank installed last week. It does seem to be only at this location

[master plumber mark]

you probably just got old galvanized pipes
going to the tub in question,

if not that then someone used a black nipple
to hook up to tub spout and it simply leeches a little rusty
water every time you turn on the faucet.


some thing like this is going on.

[jon61]

Thank you for the info, I have noticed that the bad water is just when you first turn it on then it clears up just fine. By the way the water is kind of yellow with junk floating in it.

[jon61]

What can I do to clean it up?

[Gary Swart]

Older houses were plumbed with galvanized steel pipes and rust/corrode inside. This not only causes the rusty water like you are experiencing, but the inside diameter of the pipe is squeezed to the point you have flow problems. The solution is to repipe the house. My choice of materials would be copper. You might want to look at Terry's link dealing with piping on the home page.

[plumber1]

If you have old galvonized water lines, check in the tub access and look for the nipples and ell that the tub spout is screwed to. Replace the old nipples, ell and spout. A little dirt may grow in there between the times that the tub is used.........You may not need to replumb yet.........