Seattle has awesome water. It tastes better than most bottled water.
We moved into our house 13 years ago. The previous owners replaced all on the incoming water pipes with copper the year before we bought the house.
In the beginning, the cold water was sweet and pure-tasting the moment you turned on the tap. Now, it’s cloudy and tastes funny unless it runs for almost a minute. It actually gets warmer before it gets cold and clear.
Is there anything we can do to stop wasting water to get a decent drink?
I don’t know how things are up by you this year, but here in Portland, with all the recent rainfall, they had to temporarily switch the municipal water supply from our reservoirs (delicious mountain snowmelt) to the wells along the Columbia (crappy flavor) due to excessive sediment levels in the reservoirs. I wonder if similar things are happening by you (or if the sediments are simply being allowed to enter the water supply).
Another thing is that a lot of the water mains and sewer pipes in this area (and, I presume, in Seattle, seeing as both towns are of a similar vintage) are cast iron and are right at the edge of their lifespan. Every single person I know who has bought a house in the past 5 years has had to replace the pipes connecting their homes to the street. I wonder if the pipes outside of your house are deteriorating.
If the water is clearing up after it runs, the problem is not your municipal water supply. It’s a local issue. Do like the doctor does when he checks for a bladder infection. Check the first offering. Have it tested somewhere. Maybe your pipes are leeching something out. The new pipes may be copper, but that does not mean they used the right solder.
You could always install a whole house water filter/treatment system.
While you’re looking into the other, more long-term solutions, you can at least keep an empty gallon jug by the sink. Run the water into that, and you can at minimum water your plants, flush the toilet, etc. with it.
Our water is the same way, OP. At this point in life, I don’t worry about it, I just keep a big pitcher of it in the refrigerator for drinking. When it’s cold it tastes fine, our water is renowned for its purity and has won water taste tests at the state fair every year.
Nope, but I think it has always run near a heat duct. We turn the furnace off at night and it’s not so bad in the mornings. Can heating the copper over and over have an effect on it?
toadspittle, No, the city water is still fine. I have to let it run long enough to come from outside the house.
purplehorseshoe, I’m usually pretty innovative, but your idea is elegantly simple. Thank you! How did I not think of that?
Al Bundy, good point. I’m pretty sure they used lead-free solder, but who knows. I’d rather let it run than have an RO system installed.