The water in my condo has a oliy-metallic smell. Over the past week it has been gradually getting stronger and has spread from the kitchen (where I first noticed it) to all the bathrooms. The showers, toilets, sinks... everything has this smell now.

I originally thought it was the drain, but I filled a glass and the water itself has the odor. Water that has been filtered through a Brita pitcher smells fine.

I am not on well water.

Any ideas on what it could be?

I would first check with others in the condo and see if they are having problems.

Not really sure how something like this can happen, unless there has been some work done on the water lines recently, either in the building or out in the street.

If this is not the reason, I can only imagine what may be doing it , and would indicate bigger problems elsewhere.

Sounds as if you are on city water, do not hesitate to contact your local water dept. and tell them what you have. They may come out, or ask you to deliver , a water sample to test for the contamiants.

Then they may confirm or deny any work on the lines in the streets.They will then be able to direct you to the next logical step. If no one helps you, contact the local Health Dept. I am sure they will get things moving.

If you find out what is causing this, get back with the answer, we would be glad to hear how things work out.

OK. I called the water department. Apparently the new carpet I just had installed recently is giving off fumes that are reacting with the chlorine in the city water. They suggested I air out my condo. Eventually the glues and carpet will cure and stop "out-gassing".

Also, the Brita was removing the chlorine from the water with its activated charcoal filter, thus no smell.

I've never heard of this happening to anyone else, but will give it a try when I get home.

Thanks for the responses!

Do you have an outside faucet? If it smells too, I don't think it is the carpet. I hardly see how a freshly drawn glass of water can react so quickly with the fumes. Maybe try a glass without the aerator.

Tom?

I can't add much to it Lab except to back you up. The water system's a closed system. That means if you draw a glass of water direct from the tap and it smells oily coming out of the tap I don't see how it has time to chemically react to the carpet fumes. I've plumbed countless houses and condos that all have freshly laid carpet and have never heard of this problem. Not being there I can't tell but if you can filter out the taste then I would have to say it's coming in through the water service. Cheers, Tom

This probably won't help- but we have the same problem. We moved into a townhouse where they installed new carpet throughout and our water smells horrible- almost like cat pee. I was online looking for reasons and found this: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Water-Quality-2463/2011/1/Tap-water-smells-cat.htm so I started looking more into the carpet/smelly water link. I would love to hear if anyone has any remedies. I will say it is worse in the more closed areas of the house (master bath, etc) and no longer as bad in the larger open kitchen. So, maybe the airing out method works.
-Stephanie in Dallas

This probably won't help- but we have the same problem. We moved into a townhouse where they installed new carpet throughout and our water smells horrible- almost like cat pee. I was online looking for reasons and found this: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Water-Quality-2463/2011/1/Tap-water-smells-cat.htm so I started looking more into the carpet/smelly water link. I would love to hear if anyone has any remedies. I will say it is worse in the more closed areas of the house (master bath, etc) and no longer as bad in the larger open kitchen. So, maybe the airing out method works.
-Stephanie in Dallas