My tap water seems to have some kind of white particles suspended in it. When I pour a glass of water (that has passed through a Brita filter as well), the white particles seem to settle near the bottom of the glass (but tend to float just above the bottom of the glass). They kind of look like flecks of undissolved kosher salt. What could they be? My apartment building is quite old (built in the 1920s) so I assume the plumbing is pretty old as well (if that helps identify anything).
Google search has turned up a few possible sources, including calcium. Is there any way to check?
Does it only happen for cold water or hot water, or both? When I run hot water, I always seem to get cloudy looking water that turns clear shortly after. My water doesn’t have particles suspended in it though.
I also forgot to mention, the particles only seem to appear when I use ice cubes so I assume they are indeed coming from the ice. Although I use the Brita filter for my ice cubes too.
I’m not sure how a Brita works. Do you need to replace the filtering mechanism/medium from time to time?
If you’re using Brita water for ice can we assume you’re making it with aluminum or plastic trays and don’t have an icemaker? These trays, do you run them through the dishwasher? Could there be detergent or some other residual left on them?
Is there a water softener somewhere in the supply line?
I’d guess it’s based on the temperature, not specifically from the ice (unless your ice maker is sloughing off plastic or something). My first guess would have been calcium carbonate, but that is actually more soluble at lower temperatures. But it’s probably some salt coming out of solution. Do you have particularly hard water? Assuming you are on a city water system, they probably provide yearly reports on the water quality, and you could check the total dissolved solids level.
Try heating some water with the particles and see if they disappear - that suggests they are some kind of salt. If there’s no change, then it might be something like plastic (or god forbid toilet paper) contaminating your water.
I believe it’s just a carbon filter that does get replaced from time to time. I’m using plastic ice trays and generally I just clean them by soaking them in bleach and rinsing them thoroughly every so often. No clue what kind of water conditioning goes into the building.
In our house we had a defective dip tube in our water heater (and were part of a class action lawsuit to resolve). It failed prematurely, depositing a plethora of tiny bits of white plastic into our water supply. It sounds like what you describe but I can’t imagine how it would get through a water filter.
You can also check other faucets to see if it is there. Unscrew the aereator from the faucet and see if the screen is trapping the same little bits you see in your glass. This stuff can also mess up valves.
If you rent your landlord needs to take care of this.
We have that, too, and we have very hard water in Houston. I think it’s some kind of mineral (or maybe salt.) If you leave some melted ice out until it all evaporates, there will be a residue in the bottom of the glass. I’ve been drinking it for years, and I ain’t dead yet!
I have the same mineral problem with the ice cubes. You can even see it on the ice cubes if they have been in the tray a couple days. I just leave the last half inch of ice water in the glass, not that it would be dangerous to drink.
Based on the water analysis of the City of Indianapolis water supply my first guess would be calcium carbonate (a previous poster had incorrectly stated the solubility relationship as the carbonate is ~1/2 as soluble at 20 degrees C as it is at 100 degrees C). I can’t be certain since 1) calcium is one of two metals measured by hardness (magnesium being the other) and the actual concentrations of calcium and magnesium cannot be determined unless one of these metals is measured separately and 2) carbonate concentration could be estimated by both alkalinity (not reported) and pH. The data does show that your water would be classified as relatively hard. It may also be possible that your aparatment has a water softener and the white crystals that you are observing could be sodium chloride (which is also much less soluble at lower temperatures) since the calcium/magnesium is replaced with sodium and carbonate/sulfate replaced with chloride in the softener. In any case, I would agree that the phenomenon that you are observing is caused by the decrease in temperature associated with adding the ice cubes. BTW, neither calcium carbonate or sodium chloride (obviously) would pose any toxicity related issues.
Waterman, can you point me toward a link for a solubility chart? I’ve always heard calcium carbonate is less soluble at higher temperatures, and there are scattered links that say that without backup(here, here and here, for example).
Are we talking about different compounds, or am I reading something wrong?
I think you may be confusing calcium carbonate (which has a more normal solubility curve where solubility increases with temperature) with calcium sulfate. Calcium carbonate is sometimes referred to as “soft scale” and the sulfate is “hard scale”. The sulfate is the normal scale associated with hot water heaters, etc.
It’s most likely a salt (lime, magnesium, calcium, etc) that is fully dissolved at Brita temperature and precipitates at 32f.
Even a sub-micron particle intercept filter will not remove a dissolved particle. (can’t remove sugar from water with a coffee filter, right?) You need an R.O. or better - dialysis will do it as well as evaporation/distillation.
Watch the ice melt in the clearest glass container you have. (Fill it with room temp water first) You can see the particles shed from the ice, fall to the bottom, and then in about an hour these particles will re-dissolve into the warming water.
