Green flakes in bath water

We recently had a water purifier installed and have had some problems with bits of "fur" in the water. We think this is because the plumber left the lid to the cold water tank off, and maybe some of the loft insulation managed to get in. I installed a lid to cover this.

But today we had a specks of green in the water in a bath, and am trying to figure out the cause. As I understand it, a water purifier can cause this to happen. What I cannot figure out is:

  1. Should this only be happening to new copper pipes or old as well?
  2. Will it continue for ever implying it is corroding the copper and eventually causing a leak?

According to other posts on the net, the implication is that it can take maybe up to 60 days to "clean out" the copper pipes so this might be expected but we are almost certainly beyond a 30+ day usage on the purifier and we hadnt seen this until now.

I've checked the FAQ on water purifiers and it doesnt really cover the subject of the affect of soft water on copper pipes - whether to just expect some temporary conditions until the copper coats itself in appropriate-oxide (eg calcium?)

Also, going back to the fur in the bath water, we seem to be seeing a slight resurgence of this and wander if any one has any clues.

any clues will be most appreciated

Reply to
paul.d.fox
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Maybe the purifier is somehow descaling your pipes? Maybe what you are getting out the tap, is bits of scale as they break of the inside of the pipes?

Sparks...

Reply to
Sparks

What exactly do you mean by "purifier"? (i.e. is it a filter, or a softener, or a phosphate dosing unit etc)

Secondly where is the unit installed? Does it feed the rest of the system or just a dedicated tap?

Green specs sounds like a mixture of scale and verdigris...

If you had a well scaled hot water cylinder for example and then added a ion exchange water softener to the incoming cold main such that the whole house is now getting softened water, it will cause existing scale to start to dissolve - possibly freeing some into the water.

Probably the older stuff... depends on what you mean by "new".

Reply to
John Rumm

I got this for months after fitting a water softener. The bits were:-

- Lumps of scale (often green) now freed from being attached to the pipework.

- Blobs of scaled solder

- Plastic shavings from the holes drilled in the loft tanks.

After a couple of months all stopped.

Reply to
Ian_m

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