Hi,

I remodeled my bathroom and brown water is coming out of the new shower each morning for about 10 seconds. My contractor said it's just the new copper pipes oxidizing and it'll go away but it has been 3 months and there is no sign the brown water is going away. Can this be correct?

No. Is the brown water hot or cold? How old is your water heater? How long since the water heater was flushed? Are you on municipal water system or on a well? Do you have any old galvanized pipe.

I agree with Harold and think your contractor may be a hack. You have some old galvanized pipe or fitting somewhere upstream in your supply. Please answer Harolds questions but you will not see this go away until the galvanized is located and replaced. Not likely the contractors fault. If he actually knew what the issue was he'd try to get a few more bucks out of you to do the replace.

My contractor said it's just the new copper pipes oxidizing and it'll go away
HORSE HOCKY!! Your contractor's blowing smoke up your skirt. Never had that happen in any of the hundreds of units we've piped with copper. Answer the questions from the other experts and we can began the repair. Good luck, Tom

It's not the hot water because I just replaced the hot water tank last month, which was old and went busted a month after the bath room remodeling. The brown water was there before and after I replaced the hot water tank; anyway the brown water only comes from the new shower (I got rid of the bath tub) and not from any other tab. The house was built in the mid 1980's; I don't know if there are old galvanized pipe and I'll go find out from the management. My contractor suggested that I take off the shower head to see if the brown water is from the pipe or from the new shower head (by chance that there may be an uncoated part in it--it is a Kohler Symbol Rite-Temp-pressure-balancing shower faucet.) I'll try what he suggested later today and see. Thank you all.

Your house is piped in copper if it's a 80's home.

the brown water only comes from the new shower You have just localized the problem, Remove the shower head and turn the water back on. With the shower head off is the water still brown? You've been asked in a earlier post.
Does this affect both hot and cold? I need to know this, Back to you, Tom

Tom said:

Your house is piped in copper if it's a 80's home.

I agree, but just to make sure.

Get a small magnetic pick up tool from the automotive parts store. Pull the escutcheon around the shower away from the wall. Insert the pick up tool in the hole around the shower arm and touch the riser pipe.

If the riser pipe is copper the magnet will not be attracted to the pipe. If the riser pipe is galvanized you will feel the attraction of the magnet.

My guess is that the plumber installed BLACK IRON NIPPLES at the shower valve. Here, some shower valves come through with threaded ports and most plumbers will transition from these female threads to nipple male threads using BRASS NIPPLES. My guess is one or two of the brass nipples were actually confused for black iron nipples... causes rust for about 5-10 seconds just as described above.

To test this, remove the trim plate from around the shower valve and see if you can see threaded pipes screwed into the valve. If so, then see if the pipes are copper, brass or black... report back on what you find.

Mark

Hey Mark,
Hope you had a happy new years eve. We stopped using steel pipe back in the 60's and went to copper. Are you're still using steel pipe in your area, And black iron at that, Are you still piping in galvanized? Just wondering. Tom

Tom... Happy New Year!

Reread my post... I was suggesting that the plumber may have confused a black nipple for a brass nipple when installing nipples into the valve body... cause issues just like Needhelp suggested was happening at their valve!

Have a goood day!

I see! We don't install nipples in our tub/shower valves. We solder on a short piece of copper on a 1/2" male adapter so it doesn't overheat the valve body and thread it into the valve. We then solder in the raisers. Regards, Tom

Thank you everybody and Happy 2012. To celebrate new year's eve, I removed the shower head as suggested and found ~1mm thick of particulates of rusty metal shavings on the washer screen. I ran cold water from the pipe for about 1 minute; it started slightly brown but cleared up after a few seconds. I cleaned the stuff from the washer screen and wiped all rusty stain from the polish chrone shower head--I don't think the problem is with the shower head. This morning I put the shower head back on and turned on the water, it was still slightly brown but much better than before. I'll remove the shower head again in a couple days. Where does the particulate stuff come from?

Yes, I will go buy a magnetic pick up to test the pipe. My contractor said they used copper piping and fittings and that the original vlaves were brass. I'll try to figure out where is the trim plate so that I can look at the threaded pipes to see if they are copper, brass or black.

Thanks.

I don't think the problem is with the shower head.
SAY WHATR? You just got through telling us,
I removed the shower head as suggested and found ~1mm thick of particulates of rusty metal shavings on the washer screen And the water ran clean without the shower head. I don't understand. What else could it be? Trust me, your house is piped in copper. I'm satisfied it's the shower head why aren't you? Back to you, Tom

Well, I thought shower head meant exactly the shower head piece. The metal particulates were collected in the washer screen before it comes out of the shower head, unless something is wrong with the shower arm and/or the pieces within the escutcheon. Without the shower head piece, the water (cold) still came out brownish even though less so. What should I do now?

I thought the "washer screen" was located in the shower head. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Since you have removed the rusty particles I would continue to flush it out of the system. Good luck, Tom

Thanks, Tom. Where do you think the rusty particles come from? Since it only happens in the new shower system and nowhere else in the house, it has to come from the new pipes and parts.

it has to come from the new pipes and parts. That would be my guess. Something got past the inspectors before it was packed and shipped. Let me know if flushing helps. Tom

I agree with Mark. Small piece of black pipe will cause water to discolor over night. Milo

And the next question will be. Do you, in fact, have black iron nipples connecting the supplies to the valve. Just remove the face plate and take a peek. Cheers, Tom

After I removed the shower head and cleaned the rusty stuff from the washer screen, the water was slightly brown the next day and almost not at all for 3-4 days after that; but now the brown water is coming back again just as heavily as before the cleaning. Again, I removed the shower head but this time there was no dirty stuff collected on the washer screen. I did recall that when I replaced the shower head the first time, I did not tighten eveything--I knew this because there was gurgling sound when I turned on the ahower handle and it took a second before the water came out of the shower head--i.e. there was air in the pipe, which resulted in cleaner/nonrusty water. Does this mean that the potential "black piep" is close to the shower head? I flushed it for 20 minutes without the shower head and the water is still brown the next morning. What should I do? Thanks.

Thanks to everybody for your help. Finally I got my contractor to acknowledge that they might have put in a short piece of black pipe/nipple connecting the showerhead to the supply. We removed the face plate and found the culprit totally rusted! We replaced it with a brass nipple and life is good again. Thank you to ALL.

Ahhh... good news was an easy fix! I had a feeling it was a black nipple.. ;)

Thanks for taking the time to update us!

Mark