When I very slightly dripped my kitchen faucet overnight during the freeze, the water looked perfectly clear (as it usually does). I put a white cloth under the drip and by morning the cloth was stained brown… The next night I tested the water again but this time just turned the faucet on full strength and filled a tiny glass with the water and put a small white cloth in it and let it sit. Two days later the cloth was still perfectly white–no brown water stain at all. What’s the difference between the slightly dripped water and the water run full strength. The water source is the same. My water always looks clear, I think it tastes fine but when I saw how bad it looked when it came out from a slight drip I am hesitant to now feel it’s clean. How did it start out clean then turn brown after dripping several hours?
Linda
Tom’s Answer:
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Tom: Well, it might taste fine but it’s not good water. You need to filter your water. Secondly, it’s probably galvanized pipes you had and when you run it really slow, it leaves the water in the pipes even longer and picks up all the rust. But you are drinking those metals, even if on; even if you don’t see it when you’re running it fast. That’s what filters are all about. That stuff is in the water and when, you know … and also the water pressure when everybody was dripping their faucets is going to get real low and all that junk that’s in the pipes, it’s just a mess. Filter your water!
Charlie: We’ve both spent time north of the freeze line.
Tom: Yeah.
Charlie: And that whole myth about letting your water faucet drip, it just makes me chuckle when I see people doing it.
Tom: Yeah. I mean, rivers freeze. Come on! (Laughter.)
Charlie: Hello, I want to just knock the head of the meteorologist …
Tom: All you’re doing is…
Charlie: When they say that on … the weather guest [cross-talk 00:45].
Tom: Wasted very good commodity there by dripping it down the faucet.
Charlie: Here’s the bigger risk on the city water system. You know, this is what a plumber told me. Not Alan, but another friend of mine who’s a plumber. He says, “If everyone in your neighborhood let faucets run slowly like that, it diminishes the water pressure, and if you have a serious fire … “
Tom: Oh, that’s very true!
Charlie: There’s going to be a drop of water pressure.
Tom: I’ve heard that many times.
Charlie: Yes, it’s a bad program. Just wrap your pipes and do it right.
Tom: We haven’t had any freezes where we had to do that yet.
Charlie: No.
Tom: Well maybe that’s a question from eight years ago.
Charlie: We had a near miss recently. It was a near miss.
Tom: Water sprinklers all you had to worry about.