My gf’s townhouse has 3.5 baths. The upstairs bathrooms, particularly the hallway bathroom (this has the most brown water), has brown water (like rust) whenver it hasn’t been used in like 8 hours. Is there anything wrong with the pipes? Also, if we and her roommates all take showers in the morning, the hallway bathroom I referred to earlier, seems to get the least hot water. There is a master bathroom in the basement, so that pretty much has hot water all the time. My gf never complains about lack of hot water in her bathroom, either, which makes me think that the hallway bathroom is the one getting screwed. What would cause this? Oh, and once I determine that the hallway bathroom is not getting hot water, I would occasssionally check the sinks, and they have an abundance of hot water for shaving. What gives?
How old is the place?
It takes alot less water to shave than to shower, but I have some other questions to add:
What are the locations of the bathrooms relative to the water heater?
What order do you shower in?
How long does the brown water last? Is it brown for both hot and cold water?
Do other faucets (such as the kitchen) suffer the brown water bit?
If not, my first guess is that someone bodged up steel and copper pipe without using a proper dielectric union on the pipe feeding the bathrooms. This causes corrosion, and ultimately, there will be leaking.
If it’s just the shower that’s affected, there might be so much corrosion in the pipe or at the connection to the shower valve that water flow is restricted.
I think the place is 20 years old.
The water heater is in the basement. The master basement bedroom is right next to it (technically, it’s in the adjacent room). The 1/2 bath is on the opposite side of the house, 1 floor up. The upstairs hallway bathroom is almost directly above it, two floors up, and the upstairs master is directly above the 1/2 bath.
If I’m over, I go to work the latest. The earlier people go and get up around a hour before I get up. Then my gf, then, if I’m running late, I run to the hallway bathroom. There’s sometimes up to 4 people showering including myself. Of the times I was stuck with luke warm water, I had plenty of hot water to shave, hot enough to fog the mirrors.
The brown water is primarily in the upstairs showers, and lasts about 10 seconds. It’s so odd to see when the faucets are used daily. In the morning, if that hallway bathroom hasn’t been used, the first turning on of water will make the whole bottom of the bathtub brown, until the clean water cleans it out, for both hot and cold water.
I’m going to guess that the shower valve was installed by a non-plumber who fitted up the drop leg, ell, and spout nipples with galvanized pipe instead of brass nipples or copper with a male adaptor. The water laying in the spout nipple doesn’t completely drain out, so it forms rust overnight and is flushed out when the fixture is used in the morning.
See if there is an access panel to that shower’s fixture. You may also find a shutoff valve which is only partially open on the hot side.
Hey! No fair getting technical until all the info is in!
Does anyone use steel pipes anymore? Even during The Big 80s trashy-construction boom? I’ve only ever seen copper or plastic except in stuff from the 60s and older.
huh huh…nipples.
Not to disparage the competence of the repliers here, but try plbg.com, an online plumbing forum. I’ve gotten great info from there in the past.
Over here in the U.K. a new build hospital extension that colleagues of mine are working on has galvanised steel pipe and carbon steel fittings.
Replacing galvanised steel pipes with copper ones is a growing industry here in SoCal. It is still a concern.
Some of the hot water temperature concerns have to do with the fixtures proximity to the water heater, proximity to the cold water line, whether the lines are insulated, proximity to outside walls (cold weather outside can even freeze pipes just inside the walls), capacity of the water heater compared to the actual demands placed upon it. (A house has rooms added on, and rented out. Original water heater and house was designed as a single family (of 5) dwelling. Now a dozen folks live in there…)