House Plumbing Question

[JonnieB]

I have a small bungalow in Pattaya connected to city water with a storage tank. I buy drinking water and only use the house water to bath and wash dishes, etc. It is clean enough for these purposes but I know it still must have alot of grit, dirt, and other "stuff" in it buy the way crud builds-up around the drain holes. There must also be a build-up of slime, crud, whatever inside the water-service pipes. My question is what is the best way to flush/clean these pipes?

I was thinking maybe adding a couple litres of bleach or hydrogen peroxide to the tank and then just running all the water outlets till the tank empied. Would this have some effect...I know there is no mechanical action but at least maybe it would sterilize/kill some of the bacteria and stuff on the inside surface of the pipes. Would either of these substances cause any damage to the blue-water pipeing used here in LOS?

Any other ideas or suggestions for flushing these pipes?

Thanks in advance.

[chownah]

I'd be sure that the crud is coming from the water.....buy a paper or gauze filter and run some water through it to see if there is crud in the water.....or run a bunch of water into a big container and see if you can see crud suspended in the water. Since pipes are opaque and no light gets inside crud usually doesn't build up like it does in a clear hose.....so I'm sort of doubting that there is alot of crud in your pipes but I definitly could be wrong. If I'm wrong I hope someone will post to let me know.

Chownah

[COBBER]

I find that i have to empty and hose out the tank about every 6 months and on occasions have found about 1/2 an inch of mud in the bottom of the tank.

[lopburi3]

The water itself should keep your pipes clear. Any stuff should come out each time you open the tap. The water tank bottom will get covered as the normal sediment drops out. If you want you can turn off water pump, then drain water and get pressure back and force into the pipes with taps open - that will get any small pebbles out of the pipes. If you want to go hog wild you can have someone hook up an air pressure tank to clean out the pipes but that is normally only used for sewer air vent type clearing.

[tutsiwarrior]

all new plumbing systems should be thoroughly flushed before putting into service to eliminate construction debris that accumulates. I'd say fill up your storage tank a few times and open all taps until you find that the water flows clearly. The crud that you describe should not be in the water supply. Take a sawed off clear plastic bottle to check the flushing discharge for clarity.

clear as mud?...also have a look inside the storage tank, if there was a supply pipe to the tank that wasn't flushed all the upsteam construction debris would still be there...

happy flushing...

[astral]

I have a filter like this in the input side of my main water tank

and it keeps most of the crud out of the tank.

The cartridge needs changng every 3-6 months.

[Moonfruit]

Astrals suggestion is the best by far.

If there is sedimanet in the tank, then there is sediment in the water allready in the pipes. Theres not a lot you can do about that here.

Dont use any kind of caustic substance in the tank as firstly you wont hose it all out of the tank, no matter how hard you try, and secondly the pipes are PVC plastic are are not resistant.

[Rinrada]

Also with a good filter fitted you should be OK to drink the water and save on buying the bottled stuff.

If worried then boil it first ....the bits in it contribute to a nice cuppa tea.

[Tony Clifton]

I always add bleach to my underground water tank, it does not damage pvc pipes. I'm even thinking of buying chlorine pucks instead from a swimming pool supplier.

If your tank is like mine, made of concrete rings stacked on top of each other, you probably got a half-a55ed job done, like mine, and there is groundwater seeping in. The first time I went down there to clean it, I could see daylight all around the lid and a frog at the bottom. Sealed that up with silicone, the tank should be sealed up somehow at installation but TiT. I always end up with a few inches of brownish slime at the bottom. Also, don't think the city water is clean, When I fill a tub with water that has been resting in the tank, it's very clear, if I turn off the pump and fill up the tub directly from the main, brownish three year old project. Next time you empty it to clean it out, look for hairline cracks and discoloration, usually white/yellow/brown. Rainy season is the worst for seepage.

Do they even add chlorine in the water here? Never smelled like it in 3 years...

Edited December 11, 2006 by Tony Clifton

[chownah]

Astrals suggestion is the best by far.

If there is sedimanet in the tank, then there is sediment in the water allready in the pipes. Theres not a lot you can do about that here.

Dont use any kind of caustic substance in the tank as firstly you wont hose it all out of the tank, no matter how hard you try, and secondly the pipes are PVC plastic are are not resistant.

I disagree that sediment in a tank means there is sediment in the pipes. If a tank acts as a settling basin then it could effectively remove all sediments and in the process keep sediments from reaching the pipes.

Chownah

[Moonfruit]

Astrals suggestion is the best by far.

If there is sedimanet in the tank, then there is sediment in the water allready in the pipes. Theres not a lot you can do about that here.

Dont use any kind of caustic substance in the tank as firstly you wont hose it all out of the tank, no matter how hard you try, and secondly the pipes are PVC plastic are are not resistant.

I disagree that sediment in a tank means there is sediment in the pipes. If a tank acts as a settling basin then it could effectively remove all sediments and in the process keep sediments from reaching the pipes.

Chownah

You are partly correct Chownah, but only in that most of the sediment settles in the tank.

We routinely get called out for plumbing problems resulting directly from this cause. The sediment acts the same as cholestorol in the blood, slowly building up on the interior wall of the pipework.

I had never thought of installing a filter on the intake to the tank as Astral suggests. It is something that i will be trying out myself, and then may recommend to clients.

[grtaylor]

To go back to the original point of this topic, is there a way to clean out what appears to be a partially blocked pipe. From my multi-point hot water heater a pipe goes down inside the wall to the mixer tap on the bath. This pipe is partially blocked. I've tried re-routing the water going into the hot water heater direct to it, and the pressure is MUCH less.

Can I use anything to unblock this pipe, or must I have someone take the tiles off the wall, fix it, re-tile etc etc.

OR, should I abandon this setup (I never use the bath anyway), and just run the hot water direct to the shower head?

Thanks,

G

[JonnieB]

Thanks for all the replies...however, maybe I was a little unclear in my original post. I come from the USA where house plumbing in usually (at least in SFO) stainless steel or copper (the plumber's union has been successful in keeping out easy to self-install PVC piping you see). Anyway, at least with stainless steel, after a number of years, mineral deposits and other "crud" builds up on the inside walls of the pipes and starts to restrict water flow and contributes to particles in the water.

First question, does mineral build-up occur with PVC pipes or is there no reaction between minerals in the service water and plastic pipes?

Wherether or not there is a mineral build-up, I would assume that there is a thin layer of "slime" build-up on the inside walls of the pipes due to the fact that for most of the day, the water just sits in there (is not flowing so is stagnant) and our municipal water in Fun City is not the cleanest in the world. Therefore, without resorting to some mechanical method, I was wondering if you ran either clorinated water (thanks for the sugestion) or bleached infused water through them it would at least kill lots of the bacteria that likely is associated with the slime.

There is no actual blockage in my pipes and I know I could pre-clean the water before it stores in my tank by addition of a filtration unit (which I will probably do soon)

There seemed to be some confusion on whether bleach would damage PVC pipes. Would chlorine be better?

Maybe every couple months add a little bleach or chlorine (are they the same thing) to the storage tank...a good idea?

[chownah]

I believe that mineral buildup can occure in pvc pipes (I'm not sure but it seems that I have seen really old pvc water pipes with a small amount of minerals coating the inside) but mineral buildup in a water pipe only creates one problem (that I know of) and that is flow restriction. If you don't have a flow problem then the mineral buildup need not be viewed as a problem.

Chownah

[Tony Clifton]

I've dropped a small lenght of pvc pipe in pure Haiter bleach, has never been exposed to direct sunlight . Let's see what happens in a week from now, surely nothing, bleach also comes in plastic containers, the same goes for chlorine, swimming pools have pvc plumbing and parts.

[tutsiwarrior]

bleach is simply highly concentrated chlorine? It's all Cl2...kills a lot of fungus...

[astral]

You are partly correct Chownah, but only in that most of the sediment settles in the tank.

The most of the sediment does settle out, but if the water level gets low,

the incoming water stirs it up again.

[elkangorito]

I have a filter like this in the input side of my main water tank

and it keeps most of the crud out of the tank.

The cartridge needs changng every 3-6 months.

I gotta agree. Prevention is better & easier than cure.

But if you did want to safely clean the pipes, you could use a chemical similar to one of those used for cleaning beer pipes in a pubs. I would never use a bleach as it is poisonous & very corrosive.

[Farma]

I find that i have to empty and hose out the tank about every 6 months and on occasions have found about 1/2 an inch of mud in the bottom of the tank.

A lot of the newer rain water tanks in Australia now come with a 50 liter tank that catches the initial runoff. That tank has a tap at the bottom to allow it to be drained.

Maybe a similar setup would work using it as a settling tank for town water with a spillover at the top into the main tank.

It would reduce the buildup of sediment in the main tank and the settling tank can easily be drained.

[chownah]

I don't think a seperate settling tank is necessary if a storage tank is designed properly. To avoid sediments being drawn into the house piping the pipe removing water from the tank should be up from the bottom somewhat and it should not draw water up from the bottom but rather from the side or top. The mains water should also enter the tank up from the bottom and should no point down but rather to the side.THis configuration is almost like using the bottom portion of your tank as a seperate settling tank. To avoid stirring up the sediment when adding water from a truck use a large diameter pipe (4 inch pvc perhaps) with a properly designed outlet into the tank should be able to avoid stirring the sediments. I think that this would work but have no direct experience with this sort of problem.

Chownah