White Flakes In All Faucets And Showers

Unregistered

Help! All our faucets and shower heads, up and downstairs, are clogging up with brittle white flakes of some kind. We bought this home in July and didn't have any problem with the water system before now and it's only 9 years old, so surely it's not p.v.c pipes rotting and flaking through the system????

We're both VERY manually challenged but we're also a bit worried about the potential cost of calling a tradesman to check it out until we have an idea of the possible cause.

I should qualify all of this by saying that we moved to America from Australia in July which is why we have no idea about the cost of plumbers...they're horribly expensive in Aus.

I hope someone can help!

Thanks,

Aussie girl.

tania

we had a lot of calcium in our water in germany, that sometimes turned the water a bit cloudy and sometimes there where also some white flakes in it... maybe that`s it ?

Unregistered

Nup, clear water and LOTS of flakes. Can't understand it.

Thankyou for your ideas, I'll keep that in mind.

Cheers,

Aussie girl

Grumpy

Are your neighbors also having these problems?

Unregistered

Are you on city or well water ?

Driftwood

problem- disolved plastic dip tube in hot water tank [millions faild] ,replace dip tube or whole unit ,clean all strainers on all faucets and shower heads.

Unregistered

I am a professional plumber in KC. I have done dozens of repairs with the same problem.

The water heater has a bad part inside the tank (dip tube) between the years of 93 and 97 there were millions of these installed.

The best way to fix it is to have a new water heater installed, but have the pipes "Backflushed" to remove as many of the pieces as possible.

We used to repalce the dip tube, but average life expectancy of a water heater is 8-12 years and yours is 9 years old. I would call a plumber and have them install a new one, have the pipes flushed (very imprtant step) and change all aerators. You will have little if any reamining white peices if you select a quality plumber to do the repairs.

plumber79

The white flakes are from a "Dip Tube" in your water heater. Call a local Plumber and just ask what a repair might cost. No cost and no obligation to ask. Hope you are still checking your posts.