dirty water (cold)

greetings all,

duplex, single story, slab foundation built in 1986. one side only has dirty cold water. brownish in color. i does not happen all the time, tenant says "seems worse when or after it rains" my first thought was if tenant got it, neighbors would have same problem. not the case. i thought maybe an underground leak, used a stethiscope on pipes at all available locations and found only a small toilet leak. fixed leak and got nothing with another test. water meter dosent budge. next i shut off main going into house and released pressure from the spigot furthest from the street and got a dark dark brown water from spigot after the pressure dropped, and only after pressure dropped. never seen this before, maybe sediment? water heater? rust? dont know. any ideas?

Is it brown like dirt or could it be rusty brown water? How old is water heater? You could have a peice/run of iron pipe somewhere in the system but that would be odd. I am guessing the "when and after it rains" is coinsidence as system is under pressure. When you get it how long/how much do you get?

hello cass,

it is brown like rust, i put some in a glass and waited to see if anything would settle to bottom but it never did after 24 hrs. i mentioned before when i depressureized the system and drained, i forgot to mention the water looked as dark as chocolate milk.

water heater is....i think...8 years old, possibly 20 years. i must have a look.

how much how long. going by what tennant tells me, once or twice a week but clears up after a while. when i was there last, the entire wash machine was full of this dark water, you could still see the bottom of the wash tub. but water was colored. it did not clear up when i was there. also the system was dormant all day when tennant called.

i will be checking color today (sunday)

dirty water

water heater is 20 years old.