Joanne from Australia Writes:
We just bought a house thats about 50 years old. The water has a faint brown colour. I think the pipes may be rusty. Is it a health hazard to drink and cook with this water. I mean by giving us cancer etc
Hi Joanne, thanks for writing in.
If your water has a brownish or reddish colour to it, this could indeed be rust. To find out for sure, put this water into a clear glass and let it sit for a few hours. If the water clears and you see some sediment or a film at the bottom of your glass, this is oxidized iron.
This rust can come from several places. It can come from older galvanized steel piping. If you have municipal water, it is common to get some discoloured water when the water operations staff do routine flushing of the pipes. This should go away very shortly.
If you have a well, the colour could be coming from an iron well casing, or from the water itself. It is very common for ground water to have dissolved iron in it, and as you pump it you add oxygen to the water, oxidizing the iron into insoluable form and causing the discolouration.
A small bit of oxidized iron is not bad for you. Your body uses this naturally occurring mineral. The only concerns are aesthetic, as no one wants to cook with or drink coloured water.
Often with older piping or wells if the water has not been used for a siginificant period of time this can lead to leaching the iron. Try running all of your taps for 10 or 20 minutes each.
A sediment filter can also remove the rust, and these are available inexpesively at your local hardware store.
I hope I’ve answered your question to your satisfaction. If you have any more questions or require further clarification, do not hesitate to write in again.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:09 am
Thankyou so much for your fast reply. Yes, our house has galvanized steel pipes. We have our water supplied by the “mains”. I tried your little trick with letting the water sit in a glass and there is a bit of sediment. Looks like I may have to replace the pipes eventually. Thankyou it is great to know that drinking this water is not a eral health hazzard. Thankyou so much – you have eased my mind!
December 1st, 2008 at 1:11 am
Sorry about my spelling!!!
December 1st, 2008 at 5:06 am
Iron sure can pose some interesting aesthetic problems. If you want information on a ‘new’ visual at-home testing method for iron, you may wish to read this blog posting: http://watertestingblog.com/2008/08/04/waterworks-total-iron-fe2fe3-visual-test-kit/
An important thing to remember when testing for iron is that it not all tests take into account iron in the +3 form and thus they do not test for ‘total iron’, but the test listed on the aforementioned page will test for total iron.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Joanne
It is my pleasure. Feel free to inform your friends about this site! Word of mouth is my best advertising!
Eventually when you replace your pipes with either copper or pex (plastic) you will notice a lot more water pressure in your house.
Older galvanized lines experience something called tuberculation. This means that the pipes close up with crude as time goes on, making the inside diameter smaller and smaller and restricting the flow.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:31 pm
That’s very true, water testing blog. Most test kits test only for dissolved iron.
May 10th, 2009 at 4:37 am
We replaced all the gal pipes with copper and guess what?? No more rusty coloured water! Thanks for your great advice.
Regards
Joanne