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l8vceagle · Mar 10, 2009, 06:51 PM

Hi Everyone, I'm new, and soliciting for any advice someone can give.

I recently replaced 2 of my bathroom faucets. One works great. The other seems to have dirty water run out of it for a couple seconds when it sits for 8 hours or so. I have tried these items.

1.disconnected the water main below the sink and opened it up. (thinking something fell in or was stuck in there)- however my old faucet never had this problem

2. replaced the lines that run up to the new faucet- (they were brand new, now they are brand newer new.)

3. taken off and inspected the nozzle up at the faucet spout (think something was stuck there, like a piece of rust).

One item worth noting is that the new hot and cold lines from the main are a little longer than the old sink lines. The copper main pipe from the wall does now tilt down about 5 degrees at an angle, I'm not sure if the old sink set up had the lines pushed down a little. I'm not sure if this makes a difference...

I've opened up the sink and ran it for 15 minutes a couple times, nothing seems to get rid of this initial "dirty" water. It doesn't matter if I use the hot or cold values. Any ideas?

Milo Dolezal · Mar 11, 2009, 12:52 AM

Do you have copper, galvanized, pex, plumbing in your house ?

It certainly looks like you have rusted nipples at angles stops.

l8vceagle · Mar 11, 2009, 03:18 AM

Thanks for responding Milo!

It looks to be all copper. The house is only about 10 years old now.

With your suggestion, I googled "rusted nipple at angle stops". The item found seemed to be on target with what you said. "Everyone had a few seconds of rusty water followed by clean water". Seems your spot on. Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

I am trying to rationalize why the old faucet did not have this problem. Mabye I moved something or jarred the water main while hooking up the new lines? Maybe that was enough to expose something rusty?

If it is this rusty nipple at the an angle, is this a job someone like me can do? (My extent with plumbing is just installing new faucets)

speedball1 · Mar 11, 2009, 05:22 AM

I am trying to rationalize why the old faucet did not have this problem. Mabye I moved something or jarred the water main while hooking up the new lines? Maybe that was enough to expose something rusty?

My guess is that you disturbed some rust built up on the pipe walls while installing the new lines. If this is so then this should get better with time. If it doesn't I would replace the galvanized nipples with brass ones. Good luck and thank you for rating my answer. Tom

Milo Dolezal · Mar 11, 2009, 08:19 AM

Some plumbers install Drop 90 fitting on copper pipe than screw in a nipple and then angles stop on top of it. When you decide to replace the nipples - then use Brass nipples. They will stay "clean" for ever.

Removing angle stops and rusty inside a cabinet can be kind of difficult for somebody who doesn't do it every day. That't because of tight of space, lack of leverage, and use of smaller wrenches to unscrew the rusted nipple. You may break the fitting inside the wall if you don't apply turning pressure around the axis of the nipple. However, if you are handy - you can certainly try it...

Good luck and let us kow how you did...