White material in hot water line

Hi folks,
I have a Bradford White natural gas water heater. It’s about 12 years old. A few months ago I noticed the water pressure in my kitchen faucet drop. I pulled it apart and found it was clogged with some white fibrous material. Almost looks like small pieces of screen. It appears to be plastic – it does not appear to be mineral. It leaves kind of a chalky residue when rubbed on black paper. I checked the isolated hot water hose going to my washing machine to confirm that this was coming from the hot water line and this appears to be the case. Any idea what this could be? I have attached a picture with a quarter for scale.

Thanks kindly,

Hip

Just the kitchen sink? Or has it happened to other faucets?

Dip tube possibly.

Take the cold nipple out and check the dip tube attached to it. Its a white tube that should be the length of your water heater. If part of it is gone or the nipple is damaged you can purchase a new one.

It is a bad dip tube. To replace the dip tube you need to have the height of the heater above it, or you will have to disconnect the heater and lay it down. I would replace the heater seeing it's 12 years old.

Thanks for the replies.

It has happened is all the faucets. It just seem more notable in the ones that are closer to the tank and that get run more often.

As for the dip tube being the issue is this the type of material you would expect? Or would it be harder plastic bits? Or both?

Could this be the glass lining of the tank deteriorating? Fibreglass?

Thanks again.

No most likely your dip tube is shot have you noticed your hot water running out or getting lukewarm water

I would say that I have noticed a small change in the amount of hot water - nothing drastic though. Seems like I have recently had to turn the heat up a bit to maintain the status quo.

As the dip tube deteriorates more you'll notice you'll be running out of hot water extremely fast I'd started saving for a new water heater.

It is dip tube replace heater and flush system

One more to add to the pile.

Dip tube.

myhippocket said:

Hi folks,
I have a Bradford White natural gas water heater. It’s about 12 years old. A few months ago I noticed the water pressure in my kitchen faucet drop. I pulled it apart and found it was clogged with some white fibrous material. Almost looks like small pieces of screen. It appears to be plastic – it does not appear to be mineral. It leaves kind of a chalky residue when rubbed on black paper. I checked the isolated hot water hose going to my washing machine to confirm that this was coming from the hot water line and this appears to be the case. Any idea what this could be? I have attached a picture with a quarter for scale.

Thanks kindly,

Hip

Click to expand...

Did you ever replace tube or unit. I have the identical material in all my hot water lines. Unit is only 8 years old. I thought the newer units were not suppose to the have the same dip tube issues then the ones manufactured in the 90s.

As a follow-up, I did end up replacing the dip tube. No question that was what was causing the material to show up in my hot water lines. When I pulled out the dip tube there was almost nothing left of it. What was left clearly had the same disintegrated material left on it. Whether the rest of the dip tube is gone or just broken off and sitting in the tank I'm not sure. I find it hard to believe that all that material broke down over time and is out of the system. I suspect I'll keep getting the material in my hot water lines and will ultimately have to replace the tank to get rid of it. I'll just keep monitoring my lines and see what happens.

On the bright side my water heater is working way better now!

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction folks,

Hip

Thx. I ended up replacing whole unit since I got a deal on a it. Crazy that the tube was flaking vice cruming into bigger chunks. It also explains why my hot water was getting colder to soon.

On a side note I thought they solved this issue. My unit was barely 8 yrs old

nard1 said:

Thx. I ended up replacing whole unit since I got a deal on a it. Crazy that the tube was flaking vice cruming into bigger chunks. It also explains why my hot water was getting colder to soon.

On a side note I thought they solved this issue. My unit was barely 8 yrs old

Click to expand...

I thought so as well. could of bee a unit that was sitting in storage for awhile before you got it.
Do you have a make , model # and serial #. Maybe we can see how old it really was