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You are correct in most cases. However, there are relay stations and booster pumps. In the district I am in, they use towers and booster pumps. The air can be caused by the cavitaion of the booster pump.
I am at the end of a water main and I get air everytime the electric goes out and sometimes when it don't. I was just adding my $.02.
The tower would make a great house if you didnt' mind all the damn stairs.
Hank
The OP said there are bubbles in the cold, but not as many. Suppose the incoming water is saturated with dissolved air. If it stands in cold-water pipes in the house that are warmer than the source, bubbles will form. Even more will form in the water heater. Households using more water might not notice it.
I imagine water wouldn't have that much air unless it was dissolved under pressure. Could a municipal water system dissolve air in water under pressure? Another possibility is that the dissolved gas was generated in the pipes as a product of water purification. Could that be?
Anything is possible. The bottom line is that air is in the lines, both hot and cold. If it were me, I'd call the water department and see what they have to say about it before I call a plumber. If they have a tower, I would think the air (if any) that may have been produced in the purifying process would escape in the tower, but maybe not all.
Water lines are pressurized and don't need to be layed in a sloped fashion like sewer/waste lines. Her tap could be at a point a little higher than her neighbors where the air could settle. Therefore she would get air and her neighbors wouldn't. But again, anything is possible.
Hank
YES! I have noticed in the last couple of weeks that the hot water is cloudy. Exactly as you described yours. Did you have air in the pipes at that time?
Yes there is air in both hot and cold BUT, there is only a little burst of air when I first turn on the cold water, before the water comes out and only in the kitchen. This has been happening for more than a year, and for some reason doesn't happen at all in the winter. There is lots of air in the hot water, the worst being once the water has run a while. No matter how long the water runs there are still bursts of air and it happens everywhere the hot water is used.
The bubbles were so tiny that the only sign was a milky white color that cleared up as the water sat. I don't know why it happened only once that I noticed or why I didn't notice milky water in the kitchen.
It you get it at hot and cold taps, it sounds as if air is getting into municipal pipe. It can happen when hydrants are flushed or pipes are repaired. I don't know how it would get in every day.
Perhaps bubbles smaller than peas travel along the municipal pipe, and the slope guides them to your condo and not others. When your cold tap in the kitchen is off, just enough air collects to make a small pop when you turn it on. When the water is flowing, the bubbles are too small to pop.
In the water heater, the little bubbles would rise to the top and enter the outlet as a larger bubble. That would explain why you hear big pops while the hot water flows.
If the problem starts with little bubbles in the municipal main, I don't know what would cause those bubbles.
(...)
One thing's for sure. It cannot possibly be cavitation.
--Winston
Remember that water has some air dissolved in it. How much can be dissolved depends on the temperature and pressure of the water.
Are you mad? Of course it could be cavitation! Water running quickly enough past an edge causes cavitation all the time. Get real buddy.
--Winston
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