ER Services – There’s Stuff in My Water – Identifying Particles in Your Water

If you’ve been seeing particles in your water, you’re probably concerned about your water quality. We’ll help you troubleshoot your water particle problem so you’ll know if you need to do anything about your water quality or if you’ll need help from a professional.

My Water Has Orange Particles In It

If you have orange particles in your water, you probably are seeing bits of rusted steel from either your water pipes or your water mains. Sometimes you’ll see brown particles or black particles in your water, too, that are also pieces of the rusted pipes.

While these particles do not pose any sort of health hazard, most people don’t like to use water with bits of rusty steel in it. These particles can also clog up your shower heads, faucet screens, or washing machine screens.

If the particles aren’t bits of steel, they may be an indication that your water softener is broken. Sometimes the little beads that are inside your water softener can escape (if the mechanism that is supposed to contain the beads breaks). If this is the case, the orange or brown particles that you find in your water will be round and uniform in size, unlike the jagged bits of rusty steel. If your water softener is broken, you’ll need to get it repaired or replaced.

My Water Has Black Particles In It

If your water has black particles in it, you’re probably dealing with one of the following:

• Pieces of a broken water filter
• Pieces of a deteriorating gasket or washer from one of your faucets
• Bits of black rubber hosing (sometimes supply line hoses start to break apart as they get older)
• Junk that’s built up inside your steel pipes
• Granular activated carbon (if you have a water filtration system that uses this substance) that has gotten through the filter (the filter just needs to be replaced)

In each of these cases, the culprit needs to be identified and then replaced or fixed. You can monkey around with your water filter, faucet washers, or water filtrations system, or you can call us up and let us figure out what the cause of the problem is. We can fix it for you pretty quickly, whereas you’re probably going to have to experiment for a while to determine what the problem is and what to do about it.

My Water Has Tan or White Particles In It

If your water has tan or white particles in it, you are probably dealing with one of the following:

• Pipe scale (a combination of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate)
• Issues with your water heater
• Issues with your water softener

Pipe scale may sound frightening, but all it means is that some naturally-occurring minerals have built up on the inside of your pipes and are now flaking off into your water. They’re not bad for you, but a lot of people think they’re kind of gross to drink and they can clog up your faucet filters, washing machine filters, and the like.

The same sort of things can happen with mineral build up inside your water softener of water heater, requiring attention from a plumber.

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