Copper in water

S

Scoop789

Member
Location
Los Angeles
I’ve been in business for 23 years and never heard of electrical current causing dangerous levels of copper in a homes water.
Now in the space of a few months we’ve had 3 clients complain that after having some water control company measure their water in their homes that the recommendation is to check for current leaking on to the pipes.
I’m going to to this but has anyone heard of this before?
One client is complaining that her hair is turning green and another is complaining about blue residue in the toilet bowls.
 
Can be caused by a source of DC current flowing on the community copper piping system, You can try confirming if it exists by disconnecting the main ground electrode conductor from the water meter location,and measuring for DC voltage between the electrode conductor and the main water pipe entry.

AC current, normally does not erode copper or metal piping, but DC will.
 
Scoop789 said:
I’ve been in business for 23 years and never heard of electrical current causing dangerous levels of copper in a homes water.
Now in the space of a few months we’ve had 3 clients complain that after having some water control company measure their water in their homes that the recommendation is to check for current leaking on to the pipes.
I’m going to to this but has anyone heard of this before?
One client is complaining that her hair is turning green and another is complaining about blue residue in the toilet bowls.
Click to expand...
Do they have a vested interest in the "cure"?
 
You can't prove it is not caused by the AC, just like they can't prove it is. But they will always blame you, just like when their new VFD driven appliance causes cheap LEDs to flicker.
All you can try to do is go with the science, but don't let AI steer you in the wrong direction.

Check for improper neutral to ground connections in the house and loose neutrals at the house and neighbor services.
At the worst, finally put in a section of plastic pipe leaving the 5' required at the entrance and moved any required bonding jumpers. Then you can shift the blame to the water people who should have tried their fixes first.
 
jim dungar said:
You can't prove it is not caused by the AC, just like they can't prove it is. But they will always blame you, just like when their new VFD driven appliance causes cheap LEDs to flicker.
All you can try to do is go with the science, but don't let AI steer you in the wrong direction.

Check for improper neutral to ground connections in the house and loose neutrals at the house and neighbor services.
At the worst, finally put in a section of plastic pipe leaving the 5' required at the entrance and moved any required bonding jumpers. Then you can shift the blame to the water people who should have tried their fixes first.
Click to expand...
Inspection of the inside of the pipes maybe could give some clues as to there being any significant copper erosion occurring?

Purer the water is the more easily it will absorb other elements. Might not be great idea to use copper tubing after a reverse osmosis or other purification system as the purified water would be more prone to absorb some copper from the line?
 
Scoop789 said:
One client is complaining that her hair is turning green and another is complaining about blue residue in the toilet bowls.
Click to expand...
When I was a kid my sister's hair turned greenish every summer, we spent a lot of time at the pool and I'd say it was pool water chemicals that caused that.

Blue residue in toilet bowl? what they use to clean it with?
 
MTW said:
Can be caused by a source of DC current flowing on the community copper piping system, You can try confirming if it exists by disconnecting the main ground electrode conductor from the water meter location,and measuring for DC voltage between the electrode conductor and the main water pipe entry.

AC current, normally does not erode copper or metal piping, but DC will.
Click to expand...
Yeah we did this DC test this morning and no problems there on one of the jobs. Trying the rest later.
 
kwired said:
When I was a kid my sister's hair turned greenish every summer, we spent a lot of time at the pool and I'd say it was pool water chemicals that caused that.

Blue residue in toilet bowl? what they use to clean it with?
Click to expand...
The hair turned green because the water was in an acidic state. Very low pH or low Total Alkalinity.
With copper being present in the water and the acidic state, it oxidizes and bonds to hair.
It will also bond to metallic items in the pool and show up green. Many years ago, I saw it bond onto a vinyl liner.
 
I had same color issues, & pinhole leaks in our small home, copper pipes.
As Hal mentioned, all advice we received from different sources pointed to water chemistry.
After a substantial renovation, and converting to Pex, issue went away.
Bill
 
Bill_F said:
I had same color issues, & pinhole leaks in our small home, copper pipes.
As Hal mentioned, all advice we received from different sources pointed to water chemistry.
After a substantial renovation, and converting to Pex, issue went away.
Bill
Click to expand...
We had the same thing in another house, it was iron bacteria from the well water. Had to dump a gallon of Chlorine down the well once a year. Eventually changed it all to pex before I sold it.
 
Everyone in LA is putting in water filtration systems for all water entering the home. In some areas, filters need to be replaced often. It used to just be for at the sink or refrigerator, but now the hot new thing is putting it at the water meter for all water entering. Softens the supplied water from limestone and is supposed to just be better for your skin and hair. I couldn't tell you if it helps. I don't own one.

What is the company they are using to do the testing and what part of LA? Did they get the test results or did the company offer fixes? They can call LADWP and ask them to test the water themselves.

www.ladwp.com

Water System

LADWP provides safe, reliable and high-quality water to the residents, businesses and visitors of the second largest city in America.
www.ladwp.com www.ladwp.com

 
Mystic Pools said:
The hair turned green because the water was in an acidic state. Very low pH or low Total Alkalinity.
With copper being present in the water and the acidic state, it oxidizes and bonds to hair.
It will also bond to metallic items in the pool and show up green. Many years ago, I saw it bond onto a vinyl liner.
Click to expand...
This was in 80's. I was a kid. Have no idea if they tested PH levels. Pretty certain they tested chlorine levels but that may been about all the health dept cared about. No idea on how much or if any piping was copper. Main supply line probably wouldn't mattered much as a lot of volume to fill the pool probably isn't picking up a significant amount of copper. copper in pool circulation lines however could keep picking up copper as the system is in use.
 
The EPA has a lead and copper rule that was adopted about 1990 to address corrosion. It’s caused by low pH water, my city system is about 8.0 and we add sodium hydroxide (draino) to raise ph to 8.5.
Get a copy of the water suppliers consumer confidence report to see how they address lead and copper rule.
And the issue in Flint MI was a change in water source without corrosion control.
 
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