When I first turn on my kitchen faucet, the water emitted smells like mildew. It seems to dissipate after ten seconds or so, but I still worry about whether it’s bad for me to drink, even in my Brita pitcher. I also don’t want to spray any chemicals into the spout, for the same reason.
Any advice? I’m not really one of those “pester the super” people, but should I ask him to clean or replace the faucet?
Other relevant details: I’m in an apartment, and the bathroom faucet and shower head water seems fine.
Yep, go ahead and pester him. It is his job, and as someone who had a similar job before, replacing a faucet isn’t that hard. Since the water in the bathroom is fine, there’s about a 90% chance the mildew is in the faucet itself - easy fix - he shouldn’t mind if he’s worth a damn. Of course, if you do it yourself and give him the receipt for the parts, he’'ll love you even more… provided you don’t screw anything up.
Also, the activated charcoal in the brita filter will take out the mildew; no problem. I wouldn’t worry about the water if you run it through the filter.
It cannot be inside the pipes. That’s impossible. Also not any farther down the spout than the valve.
So you should try something like Tile-x Mildew Root Remover (foamy product) on the exposed parts, spout, etc.
If you haven’t removed the aerator, that’s a good place to start. You can definitely get mildew there.
If your spout is positioned horizontally, so that it drains, rather than staying full of water, you can clean it out with the same stuff on a makeshift swab, something stiff but pliable, like a wire tipped with a rag.
Oops, forgot you don’t like “chemicals”. Is bleach a chemical? They use it to clean hypodermic needles.
Steam kills mildew, so you might try a tea kettle.
But rubbing with something like a cloth is going to be the most effective.
Are you sure that the smell is coming from the faucet and not the drain? I had this issue in my guest bath, the drain smelled mildewy but I only noticed it when I ran the water, I guess because that caused air to come up from the drain. I dumped a bunch of baking soda down the drain, followed by vinegar (foamy! fun!), and that cleared the problem up.
Yeah, definitely the faucet; I can run my hand under the water and the smell gets on my hand. Yuck.
Oh, and I’m not anti-chemical, just figure I shouldn’t be drinking them. But I guess running the tap for a while will clear stuff out. Thanks for the tips.
