Small particles sometimes comes out of the hot water faucet in my bathtub. It is large amounts at times and other times it doesn't do it at all. How do I fix this problem?

 

Describe what the particles look like. If they are black, and smear it might be a cracking seat washer. If it is rust colored it might be a galvanized nipple serving the tub spout that needs to be replaced with brass.

 

The particles are browish on one side and white on the other and are hard. Thank you for any suggestions you may have.

 

Could be a possible dip tube deteriorating off of the water heater but most likely you would have more problems with other hot side fixtures in the home.

How old is your water heater, how long has this been going on

 

My hot water heater is about 10 years old and I have been having this problem about a month. At first it was very small amounts but this past week it is larger amounts. It doesn't do this everytime you run hot water but at least 2 out of 5 times. Thank you for helping. I have had other problems with other hot water sides, in my kitchen I have to change the faucet every 4 - 6 months because the hot water side has no pressure but the cold water side does.

 

Well, just this past friday I did a job for a customer that over 2 months ago they had a clogged showerhead, took it off as it was an old one anyways and told them buildup was the culprit. Fast forward to this past friday and I go to replace the isolation shutoffs to the hot side of kitchen sink faucet and the dishwasher, completely clogged with brownish white stuff......some of it will crumble and some won't.


I go to the basement, look on the serial tag of water heater, it is dated 1995 week 48. I proceed to shut the water down to the house, cut the cold inlet pipe off going into the tank and remove the nipple, no dip tube in sight. Majority of it is in the bottom of the water heater. Told the customer that a new dip tube will fix the problem but I cannot guarantee I can prevent buildup/clogging in all the fixtures in the home without removing the source where the majority of the crumbling dip tube lies. The customers even drained this water heater just 3 weeks ago and it is almost impossible to remove all of the debri that is stuck in tank.

I am scheduled tuesday to replace the water heater and go around the house and start cleaning all the hot side valves that are clogging. That is going to be not only expensive but very time consuming to do this.

I would inspect the water heater and see if your situation is similar, it isn't that hard to find out if the dip tube is faulty or not. A plumber can do this quite easily, there was a class action lawsuit on this particular situation when these dip tubes went faulty but this is no longer available. I would correct this problem as soon as possible before more problems create.

 

Thank you so much for your time.