Our water heater is about five years old and is in a house that is about 20 years old. When we bought the house, from the builder, it took quite a while for the hot water in the master bathroom (2nd floor, east side) to get warm because the water heater in in the basement on the west side of the house. To address this problem, the builder installed a passive recirculation line. (The idea is that the cold water is denser than the hot water and flows down to the water heater and enters it via same pipe as the drain spigot.) The water now gets hot in a reasonable amount of time, but for some reason, when we turn on the tub in the bathroom, a fair amount of black particles come out of the spout.
For an unrelated reason, a plumber was here recently and I asked him about this. If I understood our conversation correctly, he said the black particles in the water are coming from the recirculation line (which makes logical sense).
So, I have three questions for the group - the first two being simply yes/no:
Question 1: Does the plumber's explanation seem reasonable?
Question 2: If a one-way check valve were put into the recirculation line such that water in the recirculation line could only flow into the water heater, would this mostly eliminate the black particles?
Question 3: Could inserting such a valve cause problems? (For instance, I am wondering if there would be enough water flow in the passive recirculation line to open the valve.)
Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. would be welcomed. Thanks.
For an unrelated reason, a plumber was here recently and I asked him about this. If I understood our conversation correctly, he said the black particles in the water are coming from the recirculation line (which makes logical sense).
So, I have three questions for the group - the first two being simply yes/no:
Question 1: Does the plumber's explanation seem reasonable?
Question 2: If a one-way check valve were put into the recirculation line such that water in the recirculation line could only flow into the water heater, would this mostly eliminate the black particles?
Question 3: Could inserting such a valve cause problems? (For instance, I am wondering if there would be enough water flow in the passive recirculation line to open the valve.)
Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. would be welcomed. Thanks.
