Why does black water come out of our faucet?

[jplasater]

We have a new house in the country. Our well water has sulphur so our pump guy installed a chlorinator. The house is plumbed with copper pipes. We have been having trouble in getting the right amount of chlorine in the water. It seems that some days we have too little and can still smell the sulphur. Other days we have too much chlorine. Every once in a while, when we open a faucet, the water that comes out is black. It usually only lasts for a few seconds and then clears up. I asked the pump/chlorinator guy what is going on and he says that it happens when we get too much chlorine. I called a water testing company and they said it is probably coming from the sulphur. Has anyone had a similar experience and do you know what is going on and how to stop/control it? Any advice will be appreciated.

[Just Bob]

Have you had your water tested? The black could be from the reaction of the bleach with iron that may be present. If you fill the sink and add bleach does the water become black then too?

[PipeDown]

Ferrous chloride is black

[boden]

The black matter you are seeing is probably an iron salt. I suspect it is found in pipes that haven't had water flowing through them frequently. Opening an outside silcock now will probably yield black material. Ferric chloride is black, as are some iron sulfides and several iron oxides.

Are you in an area where there is a substantial amount of iron in the ground? If so the anerobic organism that is probably responsible for much of your odors (hydrogen sulfide most likely) is best eliminated by titrating the water with hydrogen peroxide. I built a system to do this do this automatically in my home and it was not difficult. Just don't use drug store hydrogen peroxide because it has preservatives, not disclosed on the label, that are better not ingested.

Having spent a good portion of my life working with halogens (chlorine, etc.) and polymers I would stay as far away from chlorinated water as possible. I will acknowledge that most municipal water supplies are chlorinated but don't loose sight of the fact that artherosclerotic hearts disease didn't appear until after those same municipalities began to chlorinate water in the period from about 1910 to 1940.

My non-scientific observation of this (I am now retired to an area where individual wells are the predominate source of water) is that people who have not consumed chlorinated water during their lifetime don't have heart bypass operations.

Boden

[e-mail] wrote:

[Stan]

We have also used well water in an area where there was iron in the water. At times water could turn brown especially when used with bleach etc. We are now on town supply. We understod that chlorine is added, as done by many municipalities to water supplies, (our current town supply comes from lakes/ponds) to combat disease causing organisms; not to get rid of dissolved chemicals such as ferric/ferrous? iron. Chlorination in municipal systems usually being more important AIUI in summer. If the water tests 'good' biologically why add chlorine? Dissolved minerals are another matter and might warrant detailed lab analysis? Not sure if high levels of dissolved chemicals can aggravate the formation of kidney stones etc. Ask you doctor.

[boden]

[voiceofgod]

You probably have the water supply and drain pipes connected together. You are likely getting fecal matter from your toilet into your clean water, along with soap scum from the dishwasher.

***** CALL A PLUMBER *****

[nanook]

BWAHAHAHAHAHHAA....i hope that this is a joke. supply and drain pipes connected together? i can't say i've heard of copper drain pipes, and i can't say that i would own a house where the in/out pipes are the same size, that would really slow the toilet down.

but wait...this can't be a joke, i've read 3 posts in total that warned of gloom and doom when putting a washer onto a waterhose and replacing a sink washer...problems ranging from floods to waterdamage to drowning the family dog.

"...best left to a professional" either your a criminal shister plumber or an idiot...which is it?

just going by the description of the problem, i would think that there is something wrong with their chlorinator.

[John keeter]

replying to jplasater, John keeter wrote: I am having the same problem right now I can turn on my faucet no matter where in the house and Blackwater will come out and it leaves a sediment after it drains and I have no idea what's going on if money you can reach me at Keeter 35 at gmail.com if you have any solutions or need to contact me about anything questions that I'm having problems with

[sandy]

replying to jplasater, sandy wrote: Its called Manganese and some wells have pockets of this mineral in deep wells. It is not harmful but unsightly. It will run black for seconds and then clear up for years.

[patcher]

replying to jplasater, patcher wrote: its the anode in the hot water tank