What You Should Know About Cloudy Tap Water
It is not uncommon for homeowners to experience issues with cloudy or milky-looking tap water. But how big of a deal is this? Is it something you need to worry about? What’s causing this appearance?
It’s hard to know for sure without getting your water tested whether or not some cloudiness in your water is something you need to be worried about. Well water testing in Tampa, FL, for example, will help you determine if there are any harmful pollutants in your water supply, such as minerals, bacteria or heavy metals. It might also simply be an issue of water hardness, which can be resolved with a water softener.
Nevertheless, here is a quick overview of what you should know about cloudy tap water and its potential causes and solutions.
Possible causes
Most of the time, cloudy tap water is a result of an excess amount of air in the water supply. In such cases, you can expect the cloudiness in the water to clear up after a couple minutes, once the water has had a chance to settle.
If the water from every faucet in your home appears to be cloudy, this is likely caused by the water supply to your home. But if it’s only an issue at a single fixture or faucet, it means that’s where the problem is confined.
If the problem only occurs when you’re using hot water, it probably means there’s an issue within your hot water heater that must be resolved. When water is heated, it can look cloudy because the heated molecules will expand and trap other gases nearby to create tiny air bubbles that resemble cloudiness. However, it is possible that cloudiness in your hot water could also be due to a buildup of sediment in the hot water heater; part of standard hot water heater maintenance involves occasionally flushing the tank to clean it out and remove sediment.
There are some circumstances in which cloudy water can be cause for concern. Certain types of minerals, metals and bacteria can cause water that is cloudy and oddly colored, with a brown, green or yellow tint. So, while cloudy, uncolored water probably isn’t anything more than just air in the water, cloudy water with coloration is something that should prompt you to take action. In addition, cloudy water that never settles is generally indicative of a problem with hard water.
Solutions
We strongly recommend getting municipal or well water testing done on your water supply in Tampa, FL if you’ve been having issues with cloudy water so you can determine if it’s something you need to worry about.
Depending on the cause of the cloudiness, solutions could include cleaning your hot water heater, cleaning out the affected fixture, installing a water filtration system or water softener or replacing some fixtures.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to deal with cloudy water and other common plumbing problems in your home, we encourage you to contact an experienced well pump supply and repair company like Advanced Pump & Well Service.
Categorised in: Well Water