Rusted Pipes, Red Water, Smell

[DCRH]

Hi everyone!

We've lived in this house for the last 7 years. We've had professionals tell us there's no REAL problem with our water system. The only thing they would suggest is removing this large (I'm guessing galvanized) pipe in our basement that hangs overhead. They said it would be a few thousand dollars to do this because it's so heavy.

The water has run Red/Brown for a very long time and has acquired an aroma. And EVERYTHING leaks.

For cheapo cheap, would filters help at all?

Thanks!

[Gary Slusser]

It would remove particles but probably not the color and not the odor.

Unless you're much more handsome than handy, if it is a regular 3/4 to 1" pipe, weight shouldn't make removing it any more expensive to remove it, cut it up in manageable sized pieces and drag it out. Replace it with PEX or 1" CPVC.

Then get a water test for hardness and if you are on your own well, iron and get a water softener or other proper water treatment to improve the quality of your water.

[HayZee518]

galvanized pipe was the way to go way back when......... it didn't rust out like iron pipe, but it did have the property of collecting mineral deposits. Iron, lime, sulphur in suspension reacted with the zinc to form a battery. It then ate away at the coating and iron pipe. At the advent of copper, joints were made up of galvanized and copper. So here you have two dissimlar metals which are electrically active. You had, in effect, a battery. The current - very small, would eat away at the iron pipe because the galvanizing didn't go all the way into the pipe material. zinc, iron, copper - a battery!
Copper doesn't impart a colorizing to the water. The pipe's inside forms a protective oxide. plastic, pvc, cpvc and PEX are plastics. they don't colorize water or impart an odor. if your hot water heater has a scratch inside the tank, the sacrificial anode that's screwed into the top of the tank will coat the scratch with zinc, AND it may get bigger. Drain and flush the hot water tank.