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ambrosia

Plumbers Arms member
Plumber
Gas Engineer
Dec 13, 2010
890
242
43
called out friday to a block of new built flats and found the water outlets keep blocking as there is this translucent grit it the water system, and lots of it, clean the filters in the taps run the tap and fills up again.

the grit visually look like salt, however has a different consistency when you crush it.

the flats have different risers and not all of the flats have been effected, that said lots of the flats were foreign investors and are empty 'buy to leave investments'
the grit to my mind is in the water system and coming from outside my customers flat

each flat has a Dakin Altherma HT cylinder for the underfloor heating and hot water, in some of the flats these have been flushed but are now out of warranty

tried to get access to the plant room to see the cold water storage, but was denied access by the caretaker who was extremely cagey on the whole subject, but he did let slip someone comes to test the water once a week. i thought normally those type of tanks get a annual inspection

the flat owner has never been given any straight answers, he's been told it was the heat pumps, or that it was some type of sacrificial anode (the grit is not metal)


20160205_184915[1].jpg
 
thought the same thing, but those crystals are not crunchy when you crush them, more waxy

and how would a water softener effect 47 flats, this was on the kitchen tap, actually it was the dish washer which is attached to kitchen tap

plain weird
 
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There shouldn't be any substances in water.

Contact the Local Water company, they'll either identify what the substance is and more than likely demand access to the building stored supply.

The resin I've seen from large softeners isn't "crunchy", it is like a million tiny marbles when spilt on the floor tho'
 
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Must be some sort of device or softener in the plant room...

I had a house once where all the taps had stuff coming out, toilet fill valves blocked etc & it looked a lot like that stuff! The softeners resin tank had split.
 
how was the house fed and was the grit waxy not salty

from caretakers description, theres a tank in the basement and several pumps pumping the water on to the flats

really hope its not a softner as its feeding kitchen taps

tap water doesnt taste unusual
 
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