Clear substance & dust in my water ..

[hainhi]

Hi there,

First off, thank you for having such a useful site.

I think I have some serious water quality problems. Please HELP.

I just moved in a 60 yrs old house 3 months ago. This house has:

- all copper pipes
- been vacant for more than a year before I moved in
- Main water meter is at street side (3/4") about 40' from main shut off valve, which is in front of the house.
- From this valve, cold valve goes under concrete slab to kitchen sink, 2 bathrooms, & water heater in garage.
- Hot water of course then goes from WH, I think also underground back to the bathrooms & kitchen.

Now the problem: I've been noticing that there are some really nasty, clear looking pieces of "stuff", about 1/8"x3/16" - 1/8" x 1/4" in the water, plus a whole lot of dirty hair line size stuff. These clear pieces look like fish fin falloffs or something. I try at the water entrance (garden hose bib @ main valve up front), kitchen sink, bathroom sinks, every where. I know it's not from my WH since it's in the cold line.

As I mentioned before, my water pipe goes underground so I can't install a whole house filter. Well, I actually planned to put one inline filter (3/4") right in front of the house despite the look if I can't figure out how to fix the problem.

My guess was the problem was probably caused by the standing water for a long period, maybe? Can I possibly clean the pipe system somehow?

Any suggestion? Please help. And sorry for the long message.

Thank you in advance.

Nhi

[Gary Slusser]

Do you have city water or your own well or spring etc.?

[hainhi]

Thank you for replying. As implied in my question, it's the city water from main meter in street.

Nhi

[Gary Slusser]

Then I'd collect some of the stuff in a water sample and call the water company to come have a look. Of course it won't be anything with their water but, they may have seen it before.

[hainhi]

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll do that.

Is there any way we can clean a copper pipe (inside)?

Thanks