Help! Grease coming out of bathroom faucet

Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Channor

Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2018
Messages
15
Reaction score
2
Location
New York
Hello,

First time poster on these forums; hoping to get some help on a faucet issue.

I noticed last night my bathroom faucet water was becoming somewhat greasy; upon removing the aerator, several large chunks of grease came out. They have a yellowish-brown color, similar to ear wax.

I tested other water outlets in my home, and the bathroom faucet seems to be only one that has a problem. So my best guess is they weren't from the water, but rather from the faucet (not to mention large chunks of grease would probably have already clogged up the branch pipes, if they were indeed from the water).

Is this substance possibly faucet lubricant? Anyone has any idea what might have happened to my faucet? It's a 2-year old Kohler faucet, so it's not terribly old. I'm hoping to find out if this is just a common, one-off incident that I can ignore, or if it signals something broken inside the faucet and that it should be replaced.

EDIT: there are no leaks on my faucet, or under the sink.

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Is it possible that the piping to the vanity is old galvanized metal piping? It sounds like you are describing a glob of bacteria slime with rust in it. The rough walls of metal piping are more likely to trap bacteria that can grow to a thick slime. I cannot imagine anyone using a large glob of faucet grease for anything. Faucet grease is used only for a thin film to coat an O-ring or faucet cartridge. Maybe you have the same issue with a tub, but an aerator on a faucet will trap more than in a shower or tub spout, and of course you would never notice slime in a toilet?
 
Thank you for the response. The riser (it’s an apartment building) is 50+ year old cast iron pipe; the branch pipes in my apartment are 2-year old copper pipes, connected to the faucet by (also 2-year old) flexible hoses.

After reading your feedback, I realized I should have included one other bit of information that I previously thought was irrelevant. There was a brief water shutdown at my building, that ended 20 hours prior to the aforementioned incident. My building has 200+ apartment units, and probably more than 70-80% occupied, so I thought any “brown water” should have been long since flushed out after 20 hours. In fact, I was taking a shower prior to this incident, and there was no problem whatsoever with the shower water (which is supplied by the same source as the faucet).

If it helps, I am including a pic of one of those globs of grease (or whatever they are).
 

Attachments

  • 27EDAF25-51A9-46F5-8539-1691F8E72912.jpeg
    27EDAF25-51A9-46F5-8539-1691F8E72912.jpeg
    198.3 KB · Views: 38
I think it came from your water system...somewhere. Did anyone work on your plumbing recently?

thanks for the response. There was a brief water shutdown that ended 20 hours prior to this; during those 20 hours, I have been using the water normally (including taking a shower), but didn't notice anything off. I live in an apartment building with 200+ apartments, so my thinking was that any "brown water" that's normally found at the end of such shutdowns should have been long since flushed out.

If it helps, I posted a pic of the "glob" in another response just above this one.
 
The picture rules out slime. It could be soldering flux, but I think that it is a bit too yellow for flux. It could be grease. Whatever it is, it doesn't belong in potable water piping, particularly in that quantity. Clean it off and monitor to see if it happens again. If it were more than a one time occurance, the aerator on the kitchen sink would clog as well as the shower head.
 
Back flow, by way of siphonage, from another apartment is very possible, when you have a loss of supply pressure.
I was once a licensed cross connection surveyor and have seen a lot of contaminated water due to back flow.:eek:
 
Last edited:
Looks like wax possibly. If I’m having a hard time breaking galvanized loose I’ll scratch at the threads, smear wax from a toilet gasket around it, and torch it. The heat draws the wax in and helps break the threads. My reaching guess is that whoever worked on your plumbing employed this technique, and the wax was drawn deeper into the fitting than anticipated. After solidifying inside the pipe during work, turning the water back on broke it loose and sent it eventually into your aerator. Keep in mind that I’d they were able to isolate the area they were working on (instead of draining the entire building down), your pipes would be loaded with water, taking it a while for the water that came before the repair (spacially, not temporally) to reach your unit. Also it may have clung to the inside of the torched fitting a while before breaking off.
 
The picture rules out slime. It could be soldering flux, but I think that it is a bit too yellow for flux. It could be grease. Whatever it is, it doesn't belong in potable water piping, particularly in that quantity. Clean it off and monitor to see if it happens again. If it were more than a one time occurance, the aerator on the kitchen sink would clog as well as the shower head.

I noticed the yellow substance again last night. This time I saw several globs coming through the bath tub sprout (albeit much smaller in size); so that rules out issues with my faucet. Looks like they must be from either the water or the pipes...

have yet to check the kitchen. My kitchen faucet is one of those newer types with a pull-down sprayer; I don't know how to disassemble it yet, but can look into it.
 
Looks like wax possibly. If I’m having a hard time breaking galvanized loose I’ll scratch at the threads, smear wax from a toilet gasket around it, and torch it. The heat draws the wax in and helps break the threads. My reaching guess is that whoever worked on your plumbing employed this technique, and the wax was drawn deeper into the fitting than anticipated. After solidifying inside the pipe during work, turning the water back on broke it loose and sent it eventually into your aerator. Keep in mind that I’d they were able to isolate the area they were working on (instead of draining the entire building down), your pipes would be loaded with water, taking it a while for the water that came before the repair (spacially, not temporally) to reach your unit. Also it may have clung to the inside of the torched fitting a while before breaking off.

thanks for the response. Is this the same thing as the "flux" that people have been mentioning? I'm not familiar with these terms...

The yellow substance does have a waxy/greasy texture. In any case, does this mean there are potential issues with the integrity of pipe connections behind the wall? It will be a nightmare if tiles/walls have to be broken open to repair leaks.
 
Flux is a paste that is use to prepare copper pipe for soldering. But that looks very excessive
They may have inserted a product to hold back water while they soldered a joint.
I've used white bread in small lines to do just that.
Is it greasy and require soap to break it down or will it just dissolve and rinse away with just water.
 
Wax is typically used to seal toilets to the floor, but both it and flux can be used to break open old threads with a torch.

You should talk to your building manager about it and have them get with the plumbers to find out what they did exactly. I feel like this is almost definitely a product of whatever they did when they worked on it.
 
Someone should have that stuff analyzed. Maybe the building owner.
That's suppose to be POTABLE water and who knows what that stuff is.
Just a lot of speculation.
 
Flux is a paste that is use to prepare copper pipe for soldering. But that looks very excessive
They may have inserted a product to hold back water while they soldered a joint.
I've used white bread in small lines to do just that.
Is it greasy and require soap to break it down or will it just dissolve and rinse away with just water.

yes, it's greasy and requires soap or alcohol to clean out. If I rinse with water, it just smears across my sink.

Would it be reasonable to say that if this was indeed flux, it probably doesn't signal any impending danger/leak/flood risk, and I should just try to flush it all out? Looks like it's just a by-product of the soldering process?
 
Wax is typically used to seal toilets to the floor, but both it and flux can be used to break open old threads with a torch.

You should talk to your building manager about it and have them get with the plumbers to find out what they did exactly. I feel like this is almost definitely a product of whatever they did when they worked on it.

I hired a contractor to renovate the place two years ago, replacing all the branch pipings (hence the branch pipes/flexible hoses being two year old). Unfortunately I don't think they are going to remember the exact steps taken.... it was a long time ago, and the plumber performed multiple jobs in different apartments on a daily basis.

As long as it doesn't reasonably signal a problem with the integrity of my pipes, I am hoping to try flushing it all out over time. If it won't stop coming, then it may very well be a problem with the water supply/the building's water tank, in which case I will ask building manager to check the water.

Does that sound like a reasonable plan?
 
I hired a contractor to renovate the place two years ago, replacing all the branch pipings (hence the branch pipes/flexible hoses being two year old). Unfortunately I don't think they are going to remember the exact steps taken.... it was a long time ago, and the plumber performed multiple jobs in different apartments on a daily basis.

As long as it doesn't reasonably signal a problem with the integrity of my pipes, I am hoping to try flushing it all out over time. If it won't stop coming, then it may very well be a problem with the water supply/the building's water tank, in which case I will ask building manager to check the water.

Does that sound like a reasonable plan?
It's doubtful that stuff would affect the integrity of your pipes.
I would suggest to the building manager that he/she have a sample of that foreign matter checked just to eliminate any health issue potential. It would be in their best interest. (If it was flux, which I doubt, it of course would be highly poisonous.)

Then we would know what it was too.:D:thumbsup:

The building has a water tank?
 
Last edited:
It's doubtful that stuff would affect the integrity of your pipes.
I would suggest to the building manager that he/she have a sample of that foreign matter checked just to eliminate any health issue potential. It would be in their best interest. (If it was flux, which I doubt, it of course would be highly poisonous.)

Then we would know what it was too.:D:thumbsup:

The building has a water tank?

yes, it's a highrise building with a water tank.

now you have me worried with the highly poisonous comment - I'll refrain from using that water for now....
 
I would have immediately taken that to the super and demand they find out what is going on. I am not trying to scare you but that substance should not be coming out of your potable water supply. If work was performed on the building supply the contractor should have taken steps to flush the system.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top