How to Diagnose Particulate Debris in the Building Water Supply & Piping: Flushing out Particles from a Disintegrated Water Heater Dip Tube
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Water supply particle contamination troubleshooting & repair
How to diagnose and cure debris found in the building water piping and supply
Tracing white and gray particles in the faucet strainers and water supply to the water heater
What caused white debris particles to come out of the water heater and what were the particles made of?
Simple lab tests on white debris particles in water supply rule out mineral scale or lime scale particles
How to flush particles and debris out of a hot water heater to clean up the home water supply
Fixing repeated clogging of sink faucet aerators and strainers
Questions & answers about flushing debris and dirt out of water heater tanks

Here we explain how white and gray debris particles in the building water supply and clogging faucet strainers were traced to a bad water heater plastic dip tube. The dip tube was replaced, but then we had to flush the water heater to remove the old dip tube debris fragments. Here is how we did it.

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To drain your water heater tank, for example to replace a part, see WATER HEATER DRAIN PROCEDURE
To flush accumulated crud or debris from a water heater (yearly maintenance) see WATER HEATER FLUSH PROCEDURE
To de-scale or de-lime your hot water heater, see WATER HEATER SCALE - De-Liming Procedure
To diagnose and repair a bad water heater dip tube or anode, see WATER HEATER ANODES, DIP TUBES
To diagnose particulate debris in the building water supply, faucet strainers, etc. that comes from the hot water tank, and how to fix that problem, see WATER HEATER DEBRIS FLUSH

The articles at this website will answer most questions about diagnosing and curing noisy domestic water heaters and about the procedure to remove mineral deposits, lime, water scale, silicates, sulfates, aluminates, or silt and sand from a water heater tank.

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Diagnose Particulate Debris in the Building Water Supply & Supply Piping

Tracking Down the Source of White and Gray Particles Clogging Faucet Strainers

As an example of how one might find and cure the cause of debris clogging of faucet strainers and debris found in a building water supply, This article describes and photo-illustrate our diagnostic and repair procedure.

Ralph asked if we could take a look at the sudden appearance of debris particles that kept clogging the faucet strainers in his home.

Check the Faucet Aerators for Debris Clogging & Clean Them if Necessary

The first step was to try just cleaning out the faucet strainers and flushing out the water piping lines by running faucets for a few minutes with no strainer in place.

Our photo shows a faucet aerator that has been disconnected and its debris dumped out onto a black dish drainer.

There were plenty of white and white-tan colored particles of varying sizes.

That didn't work.

These faucet strainers would clog up again in just a few days. Clearly there was a problem particle source that we needed to track down.

Look at the faucet strainer clogging particles and do this simple debris test

It was not easy to identify just what these particles were by naked eye examination. But looking under magnification such as a high power hand-held magnifying glass or better, under a stereo microscope we could take a look at the particle size and shape for clues.

Mineral deposits and random soil or dirt particles will be irregular in shape. We didn't take this step but we could have. It might have saved some time.

If the faucet-clogging particles are mineral crud or dirt or soil particles or rust, they will be rough and random in shape.

Had we looked closely at our particles we might have seen that at least some of them were rather shard-like and a few were roughly rectangular with straight edges. That would have suggested that these particles came from a wo/man-made material. We didn't look this carefully, but we could have. It might have saved some time.

Squash the Water System Debris Particles

We did observe that these particles were pretty soft - you could easily mash them to powder between a thumb and forefinger - this was not sand or dirt. You can see this with the naked eye, but it was instructive to examine these particles in our forensic laboratory (photos below).

White debris particles in water supply, examined in the stereo microscope

In our lab photo below left you can see several interesting features about these white particles:

The edges of the particles tend to be straight or linear, the top surface shows multiple fine cracks or fragmentation in process (stressing I'd call it), and where the particle was easily crushed using light pressure from forceps, it crumbles into a very fine dust in which particles are reduced from 1/8" to to micron-range sizes in their longest dimension.

Look closely at the debris particle at upper left - you can also see some brown staining that appears to be iron deposits or possibly silt from the building water piping and supply. In our later photos (below) you can see this same orange coating on the interior of the dip tube pipe fragment.

White debris in water, lab test (C) Daniel Friedman

Try to Dissolve the Debris Particles - A Home Chemistry Test for Mineral Deposits

Our second forensic lab photo of the white debris particles found in Ralph's faucet strainer (above right) demonstrates what happened when we exposed the particles to a mild acid. We used KOH, but any mild acid would have been fine. The particles remained intact and went into suspension, even after five minutes or more of exposure.

If these white debris particles had been calcium, a common mineral deposited in "hard water" supply systems and one that can leave white deposits or even build up into thick white deposits (see WATER HEATER SCALE - De-Liming Procedure), they would have dissolved. Our acid had no effect on these particles, lending credence to the hypothesis that they are plastic and were formed from a deteriorated plastic water heater dip tube.

We could also have put these particles in vinegar to see if they would dissolve. A common restoration repair for mineral-clogged and coated faucet strainers or other plumbing parts is to soak them over night in vinegar. The acidic soak will usually soften and often dissolve calcium or magnesium mineral deposits and crud while leaving the chromed or plastic parts un-damaged. We didn't take this step but we could have.

Because of what Ralph said in the next step in our water particle crud diagnosis discussion this whole lab step of trying to dissolve particles to see if they were minerals could be skipped.

Consider the Building Age and Age of Plumbing Pipes and Appliances

The New York home where these water system particles is connected to a municipal water supply. A first guess would tend to rule out mineral deposits or crud that might be breaking free in a water heater or in water piping. But we didn't fully rule that out: the home is old enough that it might have been previously connected to a private well and hard or high-mineral-content water.

But we didnt' think hard water was a likely cause of these particles because usually mineral build-up sticks like glue to the inside of pipes and water heaters. Unless something disturbed it such as the water heater de-scaling operation described at WATER HEATER SCALE - De-Liming Procedure.

Check the Building Plumbing Repair History

Homing in on a bad water heater dip tube

In discussing the history of the building pipes and plumbing equipment, Ralph mentioned that the water heater (which was more than 10 years old, had recently been producing tepid "hot" water. A plumber was called to diagnose the trouble. He found that the water heater dip tube "needed replacement" and a new one was installed.

A leaky water heater dip tube can cause hot water to run tepid, as we explain at ANODES & DIP TUBES on WATER HEATERS and also illustrate at Temperature of Hot Water is Too Low.

Because most sink and tub faucets use a common spout for both hot and cold water, it won't be obvious whether particles or debris are coming just hot water, just cold water, or both hot and cold water when we just examine a clogged [sink] faucet strainer.

But we did observe that faucets that were used to run a lot of hot and warm water - the kitchen sink, for example, clogged much faster than other faucets in the home.

We decided that there was a good chance that water heater dip tube parts might be the source of this building water supply debris. Also, since Ralph pointed out that the water heater tank had never been drained, we figured that performing that normal maintenance task was a good idea anyway. Like vacuuming refrigerator coils, the manufacturer may recommend an annual maintenance task but many building owners have other problems on their mind.

Draining the Hot Water Tank to Look for and Remove Dip Tube or Anode Fragments

Water heater drain valve (C) Daniel Friedman

We decided that it made sense to drain and flush the water heater tank.

We figured that we would be able to see if there was a scaling or liming problem (see photos at WATER HEATER SCALE - De-Liming Procedure) or some other rust or crud problem by peeking into the water heater tank bottom through the water heater drain valve opening.

Our photo (left) is a sneak preview of what we found inside this water heater and of what was confirmed as our building plumbing particulate debris source.

Warnings Before Starting to Work on a Water Heater

Watch out: draining and flushing out a residential water heater is pretty easy and only a few common hand tools (adjustable wrench) are needed.

But it's only easy if nothing goes wrong. A stuck or broken control valve or drain valve, or difficulty finding how to drain water out of a basement-located water heater with no nearby floor drain can all present challenges during the drain operation, and there can be a few surprises when you are putting things back together too: a leaky water heater drain valve or leaky water heater relief valve.

See DRAIN a WATER HEATER TANK This article describes dealing with the more common of these water heater tank draining troubles: defective water heater tank drain valve, water heater cold water-in supply valve won't operate. .

Watch out: Safety Warnings: don't tackle this water heater cleanout project on a Sunday night when you can't call a plumber or buy a replacement part. Water heaters, their heating source (oil or gas burner or electricity or solar hot water), and particularly their relief valves include critical safety components. Do not modify or remove relief valves, chimney connections, draft hoods, etc. as you may create dangerous conditions.

Steps in Draining the Water Heater to Check for Dip Tube Debris & Flush Water Heater Tank Debris Out of the System

Following the first steps at WATER HEATER DRAIN PROCEDURE we drained the water heater tank, but we had to make use of a pony pump to get our water heater to drain "uphill" and out of a basement window, as we illustrate here.

At WATER HEATER DRAIN PROCEDURE the basic steps illustrated there include:

Turn off electrical or gas power to the water heater and let it cool
Turn off water supply to the heater
Drain the Water Heater - opening the water tank drain work: we have to allow air into the water heater tank as water is running out. A trick or two to get air into the water heater are described (and warned about) in detail at WATER HEATER AIR INLET. We let air into the heater at this water heater's pressure/temperature relief valve.

Because there was no convenient floor drain to accept water heater drainage, we using a common garden hose routed to outdoors or to an indoor building drain lower than the water heater outlet. The basics of how to drain a water heater tank are at WATER HEATER DRAIN PROCEDURE

The tools we needed are shown at left: a pony pump, a washing machine hose to connect the pump to the water heater drain outlet, and a garden hose (not shown) to connect the pony pump outlet side to push water up and out through a basement window.

Watch out: some pumps will be damaged if they are run "dry" and others may be damaged by very hot water.

We took care not to plug in our pump until we had cooled down the water heater by running hot water (with the heater heat source turned off) at hot water faucets until they ran cold. Then we opened the water heater bottom drain valve to feed water into the pump, then we plugged in (turned on) our pump to push water out of the tank and to outdoors.

I was a little worried that water heater debris might clog or even ruin the pump - we stopped once and disassembled the impeller to check but it was fine.

Water heater drain and flush procedure(C) Daniel Friedman

Our photo (left) shows the basement window out of which we routed our drain hose fed by the pump.

Watch out: when you are finished pumping water out of the water heater (the pump sound will change because it's running dry) quickly turn off the pump so it's not damaged, and also quickly close the drain opening at the bottom of the water heater tank so that you don't siphon back water from the garden hose into the water tank.

It's not a catastrophe but we're trying to spill as little water into the basement as possible.

With the hose removed you can open the water heater tank drain valve again to see if you really successfully pumped all of the water out. If you didn't you may spill a bit.

We graded ourselves a "C" on step as we spilled water.

The photograph at left illustrates the plastic water heater drain valve after we had removed it from the water heater tank.

Look into the Water Heater Tank Bottom

The photos below show what we found in the water heater tank after removing the drain valve.

At above left you can see a fragment of plastic dip tube resting right at the water heater drain valve opening. And above right we give a nicer view of the dip tube fragment as we began to fish it out of the tank. A spring-fingered mechanic's grabbing/fishing tool was handy for this step.

Flushing the Dip Tube Fragments Out of the Water Heater

This was by no means easy. In fact it was a mess. We figured that in for a penny in for a pound, it would be stupid to just drag out that one big fragment and put everything back together. We wanted to do everything possible to stop that flow of plastic dip tube fragments through the plumbing system where they were clogging faucets every two days.

With the water heater tank empty of water and a plastic bucket held under the drain valve opening, we repeatedly gave the water tank a "shot" of incoming cold water, then quickly turned the water off. That surge of water was sufficient to push lots more plastic debris and junk into our plastic bucket as you can see in our photo (below left).

This was a horrible job - with (mostly Ralph) making repeated trips upstairs and outdoors to dump our buckets of debris and water. We spilled plenty on the floor too.

We could have installed a short nipple into the water heater tank drain valve opening to direct more flush out into the bucket and less onto the floor, but we didn't.

I figured that we wanted the largest possible opening to try to get those big fragments out of the water tank.

Leaving any big fragments in the water heater would mean that they would simply be broken up and continue to clog the house plumbing and faucets in the future.

So we kept up this flush surge and bucket emptying cycle until no more debris came out of the water heater tank bottom. Our (limited) view into the water heater tank through this opening now looked clean.

If we had observed scale deposits in the water heater (which we did not expect) we'd have followed the procedure at WATER HEATER SCALE - De-Liming Procedure

But we were confident that the we now knew exactly what happened. When the plumber installed a new water heater dip tube, the remnants of the old one were left sitting in the bottom of the water heater tank. Don't gripe at your plumber about this. If s/he had warned you about the possibility of dip tube fragments showing up in the water supply you'd have asked how to prevent that. The answer would have been this tedious (and if you hired a plumber to do it, time consuming and expensive) process. Many homeowners would have decided to wait and see.

Confirming The Identity of Water System Particles

Was this water heater tank flush out job successful and did it confirm the dip tube as our suspected source of particles in the water supply piping and clogged faucets?

You betcha.

It was easy to crush the larger soft plastic dip tube pieces into small fragments that matched what was showing up in the building's faucet strainers, and plenty of small matching particles also joined the big ones during our flush job.

Putting The Water Heater Back Together

We cleaned up and teflon pipe-doped the threads on the water heater drain valve and reinstalled it. [Photo at left is a different but similar water heater]

Watch out: don't over-tighten a water heater drain valve nor any other part during reinstallation. If you break the part or strip threads it can mean having to buy a whole new water heater.

In tightening a drain valve (or relief valve on the side of a water heater tank) we want the valve mouth to end up pointing down.

We closed the temperature/pressure relief valve "test lever" [Photo at left is a different but similar water heater]

We re-filled the water heater tank with cold water and checked it for leaks.

This job step got an "F" - the valve was leaking even when the water heater was still cold. We tried tapping on the valve gently and flushing the valve seat to no avail. The leak was a slow drip that continued for a couple of days until we could return, drain enough water out of the tank, then replace the valve with a new one. Details are at WATER HEATER AIR INLET.

Additional tips on draining and re-filling a water heater tank can be found at WATER HEATER DRAIN PROCEDURE

We also checked the tank (Ralph did) a day or so after all of our repairs were complete, just to be sure nothing was leaking.

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WATER HEATER DEBRIS FLUSH

WATER HEATER FLUSH PROCEDURE

Carson, Dunlop & Associates Ltd., 120 Carlton Street Suite 407, Toronto ON M5A 4K2. (416) 964-9415 1-800-268-7070 info@carsondunlop.com. Thanks to Alan Carson and Bob Dunlop, for permission to use illustrations from their publication, The Illustrated Home which illustrates construction details and building components. Carson Dunlop provides home inspection education including the ASHI-adopted Home Inspection Training Program (home study course), publications such as the Home Reference Book, report writing materials including the Horizon report writer, and home inspection services. Alan Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.
Thanks to researcher Robyn Goldstein, Rush Manager, Information Express, 650-812-3585, email: service@ieonline.com,for researching the Purdue bulletin No. 74 original citation 03/2010 . Information Express supplies "... institutional document delivery needs - A full service company specializing in the fast, accurate and competitively priced delivery of published articles for all industries"
Pounds of lime deposited vs. temperature and hot water usage: see Purdue Bulletin #74 (also provided by A.O. Smith in the article below). Purdue's chart shows the number of pounds of lime deposited per year as a function of the water usage in gallons per day, with an assumed 10 grains of water hardness.
"When, Why, and How to Remove Water Scale from Tank Type Glass-Lined Water Heaters (for non glass-lined tanks, consult water heater manufacturer)" PDF provided by A.O. Smith Water Products Company - hotwater.com/lit/training/4800r9.pdf 800-433-2545 - 01/07/2009.
A.O. Smith's Form No. 4800 Rev. 8 Why? When? & How? /UN•LIME Specific Deliming Instructions for use with Up-N-Down Transfer Kit for Tank Type Heaters. (Normally supplied in UN-LIME shipping cartons), Supersedes Form Nos. 4800 Rev. 7 and 4813-100.
A.O. Smith's Form No. 4778* All about Deliming Coil-Type/Tube-Type Commercial Water Heaters and Hydronic Boilers *Normally supplied when ordering Part No. 4930 Motorized Deliming Pump Kit
Rheem Electric Water Heater "Owners Guide and Installation Instructions", (Australian models) rheem.com.au/images/pdf/owners_dom-elec_121996C_0707.pdf
"Scale formation in water heaters and methods of prevention", Krappe, Justus Maximilian, Engineering experiment station. Gas engineering bulletin; no. 6; Research series; no. 74; On cover: Engineering bulletin, Purdue university. Vol. xxiv, no. 3a. June, 1940 (Layfayette Indiana) commonly referred to in some references as "Purdue University Bulletin No. 74" - thanks to researcher Robyn Goldstein for the full citation. LCCN: 40028844 & OCLC: 1038544 - Water analysis, water softening, hot-water supply. 27pages. You can obtain this document through your local library. (full copy file at InspectAPedia 3/31/2010) Purdue B074 can be hard to locate online.
Also Bradford White Corporation (a manufacturer of water heaters) has published excerpts from that document, available at Purdue_B074_BradfordW.pdf
Super Iron Out, MSDS Material Data Safety Sheet rust and stain remover; the manufacturer indicates this product can be used to clean rust sediment from water softeners. Summit Brands. See Iron Removal from Water Softener
Lime Out / Lime Out Extra, lime remover MSDS, produced by Summit Brands, 7201 Engle Road, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46804–222, Tel: 1–888–476–6688, Email: info@summitbrands.com Email See WATER HEATER SCALE - De-Liming Procedure
Other sources of information on calculating the rate of lime deposition from hard and hot water:
- Wilkes University Center for Environmental Quality Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences Hardwater, Water Hardness "Hard Water Hardness Calcium Magnesium Water Corrosion Mineral Scale" http://www.water-research.net/hardness.htm
- Chemical Engineering, Joseph D. Hagerty Editor, McGraw-Hill, 1989, ISBN 0685270831, 9780685270837
  "To calculate the amount of material that will be deposited in 1000 gal. of water per day, take the number of grains per gallon of each as shown by the ..." also difficult to obtain except as a used copy.

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The Home Reference Book - the Encyclopedia of Homes, Carson Dunlop & Associates, Toronto, Ontario, 2010, $69.00 U.S., is available from Carson Dunlop. The Home Reference Book is a bound volume of more than 450 illustrated pages that assist home inspectors and home owners in the inspection and detection of problems on buildings. The text is intended as a reference guide to help building owners operate and maintain their home effectively. InspectAPedia.com ^® author/editor Daniel Friedman is a contributing author. Field inspection worksheets are included at the back of the volume.

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Diagnose Particulate Debris in the Building Water Supply & Supply Piping

Tracking Down the Source of White and Gray Particles Clogging Faucet Strainers

Check the Faucet Aerators for Debris Clogging & Clean Them if Necessary

Look at the faucet strainer clogging particles and do this simple debris test

Squash the Water System Debris Particles

White debris particles in water supply, examined in the stereo microscope

Try to Dissolve the Debris Particles - A Home Chemistry Test for Mineral Deposits

Consider the Building Age and Age of Plumbing Pipes and Appliances

Check the Building Plumbing Repair History

Homing in on a bad water heater dip tube

Draining the Hot Water Tank to Look for and Remove Dip Tube or Anode Fragments

Warnings Before Starting to Work on a Water Heater

Steps in Draining the Water Heater to Check for Dip Tube Debris & Flush Water Heater Tank Debris Out of the System

Look into the Water Heater Tank Bottom

Flushing the Dip Tube Fragments Out of the Water Heater

Confirming The Identity of Water System Particles

Putting The Water Heater Back Together

Questions & Answers regarding this article

Ask a Question or Search InspectAPedia

Technical Reviewers & References

Books & Articles on Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, & Repair