Straining sediment out of old galvanized plumbing

[Dan_Musicant]

Ideally, I'd like to replace all my old galvanized piping, but it may not be practical to do this for some time.

I just bought two identical new faucet sets for my bathroom sinks, and on the boxes it touts:

"Drip-Free Ceramic Disk Cartridge Provides Outstanding Performance and Long Term Reliability."

Each faucet set has two of those (hot and cold) and one spout. Brand is Glacier Bay (Home Depot), and posts here say they are almost certainly Delta made, with Delta replacement parts. They appear to be chrome plated brass, and the popup's are solid brass.

I went into a local plumbing supply store in town yesterday. Although I was unaware of the place for decades, I was told they are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year! The one guy there said that unless I have decent plumbing, I can't expect ceramic valve faucets to last long. He said that with old galvanized plumbing (which sloughs off corroded metal continually), the ceramic valves will fail just a soon as compression valve's washers, and that in fact I won't be able to replace them but will have to replace the faucets!

Naturally, I'm alarmed about this. One faucet set is yet to be installed, but I installed the other a week ago. The hot water to that faucet set is from a newly installed on demand heater (Noritz), and the heater has a water filter in-line, just after the hot water comes out of the heater. I can easily and quickly clean out that filter by turning off the valve right next to the filter and opening it up (did so once already).

There's around a dozen feet of old galvanized from there to the faucet, however. The cold water, however, is sure to have sediment in it. Every time I take apart the pipes here and inspect the pipes, I find them in pretty bad shape. They pass water, but they are badly corroded internally. If I were to not use a pipe for a month or two (or maybe even a few days) the first time I used it, the water would come out brown for the first few seconds.

So, I'm wondering if I can maybe get serviceable filters I can put between the shut offs and the faucet sets in both bathrooms that will protect the faucets. Or is that guy incorrect about the issues? TIA for any guidance.

Dan

[Joseph Meehan]

I would relax. I don't know what you can and can not replace in the faucets, but I would not expect any problems in the near future. Also, I suspect that they came with warranties, likely long ones. At worse you will get new faucets for free.

[hallerb]

do realize scaling means your about to leak:(

fix leak here, new one appears there.

If I were you I would be more concerned about the flood that is sure to occur.

This happened to a budfdy of mine, re refused to replace the lines as they clogged and flow slowed. Had a couple leaks then the big one oin his bathroom wall when no one was home.

thousands of dollars damage he HAD NO CHOICE THAN TO REPLACE EVERYTHING.

This is your future:( sorry for the bad news

[Dan_Musicant]

:do realize scaling means your about to leak:( : :fix leak here, new one appears there. : :If I were you I would be more concerned about the flood that is sure to :occur. : :This happened to a budfdy of mine, re refused to replace the lines as :they clogged and flow slowed. Had a couple leaks then the big one oin :his bathroom wall when no one was home. : :thousands of dollars damage he HAD NO CHOICE THAN TO REPLACE :EVERYTHING. : :This is your future:( sorry for the bad news

I've been living here 23 years and the house was built in 1914. Really, I'd never have known that the pipes were in bad shape if I hadn't done some work on the pipes myself:

I installed a washing machine, which required replacing around 8 feet of galvanized pipe. A new shower surround was recently installed, and in doing so, the workers were obliged to replace the pipes going to the shower. So, I had a look at the old pipes that they removed.

Looking into the interiors of the pipes, you could see heavy corrosion. However, to my knowledge, none of this piping has leaked a drop. That doesn't mean a flood won't happen tomorrow, of course. I have no idea of the danger. There could even be leaks now. I must say, the crawl space earth under the house looks damp. You know how dirt looks when it's not dry? It is a lot darker, and that's what the ground looks like under the house. I was under there just 2 days ago. Maybe it's just the water table, maybe there's a leak of some kind. However, the water coming in is above ground level, only the sewer stuff goes underground. AFAIK, there's no leak in it, but who knows??

I figure the time to replace the plumbing is the same time that a new electrical service gets installed and the electricity gets completely updated in the house - i.e. when the walls are opened up, which should happen AFTER the foundation is replaced and the house leveled, and new siding put on. IOW, one BIG JOB! Unless it's important to do one of these things earlier, I figure it's better to do them all-at-once (so to speak).

Dan

[Dan_Musicant]

: I would relax. I don't know what you can and can not replace in the :faucets, but I would not expect any problems in the near future. Also, I :suspect that they came with warranties, likely long ones. At worse you will :get new faucets for free. : :-- :Joseph Meehan

Yes, thanks. The "Limited Lifetime Warranty" states, in part:

"Glacier Bay Faucets & Sanitaryware warrants to the original purchaser that this faucet will be leak and drip free during normal domestic use. If this faucet should ever develop a leak or drip Glacier Bay Faucets & Sanitaryware will free of charge provide the parts necessary to put the faucet back in good working condition."

Dan

[hallerb]

Thats a good plan but you might begin by replacing with PEX, its easy fast affordable and plastic.

You have funding for your this old house job? Doing it all at once will cost a fortune:(

[Eigenvector]

I'm in a similar pickle. All my galvanized is about rusted shut, so what I'm doing until its feasible is replacing small sections one at a time with PEX. It's cheap and quick to replace with PEX. I'm not the strongest proponent for it, however for short term repair its perfect for me. It doesn't look nice, but its better than rusty galvanized.

Basically all I'm doing for now is replacing what I can get at with the PEX and once my situation settles out I'll do the whole thing at once with PEX. It won't be much more work and all the repairs will give me sufficient experience to know what works and what doesn't. Also every section of galvanized you remove cures your problems that much faster and removes that much danger from the situation. If you can replace the galvanized by the faucets that will trap the majority of the rust and scale before it get to the faucet.

[hallerb]

pex has a big advantage one faucet etc per line if installed properly

makes service easy in future, just turn off valves to place you need not entire home

[Dan_Musicant]

:>

:> I figure the time to replace the plumbing is the same time that a new :> electrical service gets installed and the electricity gets completely :> updated in the house - i.e. when the walls are opened up, which should :> happen AFTER the foundation is replaced and the house leveled, and new :> siding put on. IOW, one BIG JOB! Unless it's important to do one of :> these things earlier, I figure it's better to do them all-at-once (so to :> speak). :>

:> Dan : :Thats a good plan but you might begin by replacing with PEX, its easy :fast affordable and plastic. : :You have funding for your this old house job? Doing it all at once will :cost a fortune:(

Funding is a problem. If I'd signed with the GC I had inspect the house shortly before I bought it in 2000, it would have cost a fraction of what it would cost today. I am not given to regret, but this is one exception. He was good and thorough, but nowadays he has no stomach for a project like my house. To hard, too much work, too dirty. He's 6 years older now and pretty much sticks with the easy stuff - windows, for the most part.

Doing it all at once will cost a fortune, but I think the fact probably is simply that it will cost less to do it all at once, and it will be done BETTER as well.

The PEX replacement if plumbing? Thing is, I figure that will entail opening up the walls, right? That might be best done at the same time as installing updated electrical. Maybe it will work to do the plumbing and electrical before the foundation/siding job. I can afford those now.