Water heater dip tubes

Al_4

I do water treatment work, and had a homeowner call yesterday and ask to have a filter installed on her cold water main. She said she has a filter on her hot water, but it plugs up every two weeks with blue or blue/green colored particles.

Can this be the condition I remember hearing about a while back where the water heater dip tubes were disintegrating?

I thought it was blue colored particles that was the symptom.

If so, what is the solution?
Can the tube be replaced, or does it call for tank replacement, Or...?


Al

MikeB34

Dip tubes

I did about 2000 of those stupid things. I f the old diptube was not 100% recovered, its still there, breaking up. I suggest draining the tank by totally removing the tap so that any remaining particles will flush out. Use a coat hanger in the drain opening to break up and shake up any particles.Then with the drain tap still off, turn on the water and flush again. Do this about 3X. If you can lean the tank a bit to the drain side while flushing, any larger chunks of the dip tube should fall that way. Look inside to see if anything is visible and remove with needle nose pliers. Even with all this, you may not get everything. Another solution that worked well for me on problem tanks was to install a 3" diptube on the outlet. This causes the water draw to be below the floating particles. Clean the filter and see if that helps. a lot of work, but you wont get $ for the old tank. The 3" diptube has been really effective, and may be the easiest solution. If the particles have been on going for a while, a lot of the old tube may be alrady gone (Or not depending on what they recovered). Good luck

Mike

Irene

dip tubes

Yes, there was a recall several years ago on dip tubes. They fell apart and plugged up everything. There was a class action suit and the hot water manufacturers had to pay for the replacement of the tubes as well the cleaning up of any damage caused by the particles. They of course migrated to all of the major appliances as well as simply stopping up showers and causeing faucets to leak. Your time limit to submit a claim is past and as I was told you are simply out of luck..

MikeB34

Plug ups

Irene raises a good point too. Check inlets to washing machines and dishwashers too (and any other appliances and hot water taps). There may be particles that could cause the solenoid to not shut properly. Some may have gotten out b4 the filter was installed.