Sediment in water

[N2Deep]

Just wondering if anybody has any ideas on this problem.

I have white flaky sediment that is clogging up my screens on my faucets. It looks like tiny seashells crushed and is fairly easy to break, but it is reducing the water flow and I want to find out how to eliminate it.
I have Pex tubing through out the house that is only 6 months old. And tankless water heaters. I was thinking that since I have tankless the sediment doesn't settle to the bottom and comes out at the sinks.
So I was going to install a sediment filter on the main coming in but thought I would ask here first to see if anybody else has seen this.
Also installed a soft water conditioner but still did not fix problem(thinking it was just hard water buildup)

Thanks

[RRG]

Not exactly sure what PEX is, but you may be onto something with the sediment not settling in a tank (since you don't have one).
I work as a service rep for the gas and water dept. in my town and have been on calls where there has been some sediment, but more importantly, the customer goes through hot water heaters really fast.
Upon closer inspection, they have the water from the softener feeding the hot water heater.
Chemical reaction causes the tank to corrode much faster when it is supplied with softened water.
Better to have your feed come from the supply, to your HWH, then out to the softener.
This may not be the case everywhere, but with our municiple supply and the treatment used, it is how things work here.

Check out where, in-line, your softener is. Just some food for thought.

[Rich]

Tankless installations should have a sediment tank infront of the water heater - I would guess that's what the problem is. Or scaling due to hard water buildup - with your conditioner it still might take awhile to get all the gunk out of the lines.
PEX is a type of plastic tubing that's being used quite a bit for water supply now.. I personally think it makes the plumbing installation look messy - but it does the job.

[Vector]

I've seen (photos) some really slick looking PEX installations. Like anything else, if you do it sloppy, it looks bad.

A whole-house filter is easy to put in, and pretty cheap too. I've always intended to put one in the house I'm building, even though I hadn't thought of the tankless heater aspect (AquaStar 250SX should be showing up any day now).

[Rich]

I agree there are good installers out there somewhere - I just never seem to see them :)

[TnAndy]

Most likely it's lime that you are seeing.

If you live in an area with hard water like most of our area, the heating of the water precipitates out the lime in the water and it shows up as little white chips. These settle out in a normal water heater, and in fact, are a problem as they build up around the lower element, reducing the water around the element and causing it to burn out.
I've vaccumed out a shop vac full of these when replacing lower elements sometimes.

You would need a settling tank or filter of some kind on the outlet end of your tankless water heater.

[N2Deep]

I was thinking of a filter such as this:

http://budgetwater.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=152

but never thought about putting it after the water heater. Do you think it is caused by heating the water? I will have to test a faucet that only runs cold water and see if the sediment shows up there too. Thanks for the input.

Does anybody have a better filter they have used that you recommend.

Thank you!

[TnAndy]

I have both of those type on my house inlet line because I'm on a spring water system and I use them to filter out sediment/sand.

Don't think they would work on a hot water outlet side being PVC....you'll need either a settling tank or a filter in a metal housing.

You should also be able to cure the problem I'd think by softening the water before it enters the heater.

Never had any experience with water softeners, so can't really say.

[dhill]

N2Deep, I bought a spin down filter for 8 bucks at Lowes. It was on a close out sale, but even at that it was normally priced at about $25. That $99 looks pretty expensive to me for what it's offering. I was looking for some way to filter my well water before I put it in the pressure tank so that I didn't get sediment in my pressure tank. I'm not sure if the spin down will work for that because it has to have pressure to make it effective. I haven't hooked it up yet to see how it works. I did attach a garden hose to it to check it out, and it seemed to work okay.
I was given a cartridge filter used for a hot tub by an owner of a pool supply store. It was a great filter, massive with 4 30" cartridges, but again it takes quite a bit of pressure to make it effective. You might try a pool supply store and see if they want to get rid of any old filters. The owner told me that he had those things all the time, and he usually carried them to the dump. Of course, it only filters the water, it doesn't treat it in any way.

[rabadger]

I had a well in my last home. In the morning you could jump into the shower and sand blast your face, the water was so hard. I put the whole house filter on and it solved the problem. I had to change the filter about every month. They will also help in extending the life of a water softener.

I moved into town and the first thing I installled was another filter. Now I change it about every three months.

You will know when the filter needs changing. the water pressure will drop.