My question is, in the last 6 months or so, I have noticed what appears to be an excessive amount of what I believe to be calcium in my homes plumbing appliances such as bath and kitchen faucets. What first drew my attention to the problem was that the water flow had become greatly reduced. I removed one of the small softening devices on the end of a bathroom faucet and found it clogged with what I believe to be calcium. I cleaned it out, reinstalled it and checked it about a week later and found it was clogged up again. Two other points worth mentioning are that the condition is on all faucets in the home including the washing machine supply line and it's much worse on the hot side as opposed to the cold side. The home is ten years old and has the original hot water heater.

Any ideas?

doug238

fill your tub with hot water only, does it give you a full tub or does it run out of heated water quicker than in the past?
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speedball1

Dude, You ask if we have any ideas. Hoo boy! Have we got ideas! The main one being that you have mineral buildup in your water heater that has built up to the point that it's now all through your system. You need to set up a regular maintenance schedule on your heater and flush it out. Let me show you how. For long life and fewer troubles you should keep your heater clear of mineral build-up by flushing on a regular schedule. Attach a hose to the boiler drain at the bottom of the tank. With the pressure on, open the boiler drain and let it run untill the water runs clear. You will see a spurt of red,(rust) followed by white or yellow grains,(lime or calcium carbonate). This shouldn't take more then a few minutes. Do this monthly to keep it clear. Now flush out your hot water lines on ALL fixtures that are affected . Now pull each aerator and clean the screens. Be sure you put them back togather the same way you took them out. Don't forget to flush it out every month. Your heater will thank you for it. Hope this helps, Tom

Handy Dude

Doug...I ran a full tub of only hot water as directed. Water temp. appeared to stay the same during entire fill up. It also felt as hot as what was coming out of the hot water heater. I going to try Tom's solution and flush and clean the entire system. Will report back my results. And thanks for the direction.

Handy Dude ( I guess not that handy after all. )

ballengerb1

An additional thought, you may also have a deteriorating sacrificial anode rod in you water heater. They last a good long time, sometimes as long as the tank, but they can go bad. They produce white specs which sounds like your calcium. In any case dio as Tom says. If the problem comes back in a few weeks I'd suspect the anode rod.

Handy Dude

ballenger...

After reading Tom's answer I flushed the water heater, removed all the aerators and let the faucets also flush real well. During that process I noticed some small pieces of a hard black material coming out with the calcium. At that point I did some additional research on water heaters and also came to the conclusion that the anode may be shot. Is it worth replacing it or better to go and just replace the water heater. After all it is 10 years old.

Handy Dude