You turn on the hot water faucet expecting clean water to come out but instead, brown, red, or even black water emerges. While initially gross, discolored or rusty water coming from your hot water heater is a common problem many homeowners face. But what causes rusty water from your hot water tap? Is it harmful to your health? Can it stain your clothes? Should you turn your water heater off? There are many questions you might ask yourself if you’re dealing with discolored or rusty hot water. To clear up any confusion, we’ve compiled a list of helpful tips and advice. Keep reading to learn more about what you can do about discolored or rusty water coming from your hot water heater.
What To Do If Your Hot Water Is Rusty or Discolored?
Find the Source of the Problem
One of the first steps you’ll want to take is finding out where the problem is stemming from. For instance, is it coming from your hot water heater or your pipes? If you’ve recently had any type of plumbing work completed or repairs done, it could cause your water to turn colors if there were any issues. In most cases, rusty or brown water coming from your hot water faucet is caused by sediment or rust buildup inside the hot water heater tank. If you live in an area with hard water or your hot water heater is older than eight years, it’s more likely that mineral deposits and sediment will build up. As long as there’s enough water inside the tank, this shouldn’t be an issue. However, if there’s a significant buildup, your water will eventually turn brown from sitting in the tank.
Flush Your Hot Water Heater
When mineral buildup is the issue of brown or discolored water coming from your hot water taps, sometimes all you need to do is flush your water heater. Flushing your water heater requires you to drain all of the water and sediment from inside the tank. Although not extremely difficult to do, it can be messy and time-consuming. If you’d rather not DIY your water heater flush, you can always contact a professional plumber. Day & Night Plumbing will completely flush out your hot water heater removing any sediment or rust that may be inside the tank.
Get a Tankless Water Heater Installed
If you continually have problems with your water coming out brown or discolored, consider upgrading to a tankless water heater. Tankless water heaters don’t store water like traditional hot water heaters do. Instead, they heat water only when it’s needed. Since there’s no tank that holds water, there’s less of a chance that it will build up inside. Consider calling Day & Night Plumbing today to learn more about tankless water heaters and how they can save you money.
Address Pipe or Water Main Issues
As mentioned before, the problem may be stemming from your pipes or your city water mains. If your home was built several decades ago, you might want to have your pipes checked. If you’re not sure when your pipes were installed, or when they were last checked, give Day & Night Plumbing a call. Older galvanized steel pipes are prone to rust and may cause your water to turn colors. If the city water mains are leaking or broken, give your local water authorities a call to find out when they will be fixed.
Perform Preventative Maintenance
Once you notice a problem with your water’s color or are able to pinpoint the source of the problem, it’s time to think about preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance can include flushing your water heater annually, having a plumber come to your home for maintenance visits once a year. Addressing these small problems early on can help prevent you from calling us for large and costly repairs.
What are Next Steps
Rusty or discolored water coming from your hot water taps is never ideal. However, there are several things you can do to prevent the problem from happening again. If you aren’t comfortable performing maintenance checks yourself, contact Day & Night Plumbing at 505-974-5797 and we’ll send out one of our experts to help.
