In a relaxing place like a bathroom, rust coming out of the bathtub faucet can be a nightmare to you.
If you are having dirty or rusty colored water out of your bathtub faucet, it may cause you significant irritation.
At first, such rusty-colored water coming out of the bathtub faucet may seem to be horrible to you. It definitely looks horrible and gross, the water may look unusable for daily works.
You may likely get an unpleasant smell from the water as well. But once you know how common it is to most households, you would be amazed.
At first, let’s get to know what might cause such discolored or rusty water.
Reasons Why Rust Is Coming Out of Bathtub Faucet
When you expect to get clear water from your bathtub faucet, but all of a sudden you find rusty water in the tub coming out of it could make you feel miserable.
However, there could be some reasons and some parts of the faucet that might be causing this scenario.
Once you find out the quality of the water is being compromised, you have no way out other than calling a professional plumber or expert to sort out this disturbing matter.
Let’s dig deeper knowing into this problem.
- Having Pipes With Rust
This is very common to find rusty pipes in most households often. This issue is creating concerns for the homeowners for a long time.
When the pipes are rusty and the faucets of the bathtubs are often turned off and on, creating water pressure significantly.
As a result of this, the water pressure inside the pipe also changes repeatedly so ultimately the rust inside the pipe gets loose eventually.
This rust gets mixed with the water with the pipe and because of the pressure from the faucet the rusty and discolored water comes out of it. You get that unpleasant water when the tap is being turned on.
This unpleasant water comes through the water supply, discoloring the bathtub, showers, and even other parts of the bathroom or even your kitchen sink.
- Getting Deeper Water From Well
When you get natural water from deep in the earth, for instance well, then be ready to get some other properties along with that water.
Some elements may not be much beneficial to you, but you may not be able to deal with those elements at all.
For well water, two elements might harm you even more if you do not deal with it beforehand. Those elements are iron and manganese.
While sometimes iron might be good for your health but overexposure may harm you even more.
In the well water, you will find three fundamental types of iron, for instance, ferrous iron, iron bacteria, and ferric iron.
All these irons come with different appearances by discoloring the water that comes out of your bathtub faucet or kitchen sink.
The iron bacteria are found surviving on the iron which is found on the pipe, water, or the fittings on your home.
- Presence Of Steel Water Heater
Having a steel water heater can also work as a catalyst of rust in bathtub water. Let me explain how.
It does not matter whether you have an electric or gas water heater. Over the time of use, naturally, it would have rust on the surface, especially when the heater is of steel.
Though keeping this important thing in mind, the manufacturer of such heater adds a coating on the surface of the heater with time the coating surface gets removed.
So after that removal of the coating over time, the steel of the heater naturally starts to corrode, creating rust on the surface and eventually settling in the bottom of the water heater.
Eventually, the heated water becomes rusty and discolored, contaminating the clear and usable water to a great extent.
- Another Part Of The Water Heater Anode Rod
This anode rod is another significant part of a water heater that can cause rusty water.
This particular part is made up of different elements like for instance magnesium, aluminum, and zinc.
The main purpose of this particular part is to safeguard the steel lining of the heater through electrolysis, and this causes a chemical reaction.
This chemical reaction eventually leads the rod to corrode. As time passes by, this part of the anode rod will be entirely coated in corrosion and the heater will lose the capability of doing the intended job.
That is why this part of the heater needs to be replaced regularly.
The Solution Of Rust Coming Out Of The Bathtub Faucet
You can find several solutions to this particular problem.
If you are lucky enough, you may find the issue getting solved pretty easily. The rusty or discolored water may stop falling after some time of water flowing from your bathtub faucet.
However, if you find this happening regularly, then you need to deal with it with the needed seriousness.
It would imply that there might be some serious issue in the water supply system of your bathtub faucet that needs to be taken care of.
There are some other aspects as well for you to consider.
- Replacement Of Galvanized Pipes
You know that the pipes can be a major contributor to the rusty water coming out of your bathroom faucet. So, how to fix rusty water pipes?
Most of the pipes are galvanized, and it is one of the major catalysts to creating rust in the pipes of the water supply. As a result of this rust on the pipe, you get that rusty, discolored, and smelly water from your bathtub faucet.
So galvanizing the pipes need to be avoided, replacing it with copper plumbing.
- Changing Water Heater
There is a certain life span of the water heater that you purchase for daily use.
Once you purchase a water heater, normally it would serve you for 10 years or so, depending on the frequency of your use.
Change it when you find that the heater is not much functional. Otherwise, there might be rust and water leakage problems due to it.
- Call For A Professional Plumber
If you are dealing with a water rust issue from your bathtub faucet, chances are there that you can not solve it on your own.
So, call for a professional to solve the problem for not wasting your time and getting a proper solution to it. A plumber will easily figure out what causing the issue and know what needs to be done.
If the issue or the presence of rust is found in the faucet, then they will be able to decide whether to keep the faucet or replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Initially, it will not harm your skin as the water is not absorbed. Rust is formed due to the presence of iron. When you are exposed to such water with a strong presence of iron for a long time then there are chances that your hair and skin may suffer.
It will be very dry, and it would take a significant time and effort from your side to regain the former version of your skin and hair.
The process is not much difficult, you just have to unscrew the aerator just at the other side of the spout. Then you have to check if there is any debris.
After that, you can scrub it with a toothbrush and use a solution of white vinegar and water. But before doing it, you will have to stop the water supply of the bathtub faucet.
To sum up
By now, you have an idea regarding what to do when rust comes out of the bathtub faucet. First, you know it is very common and all the plumbers face this problem regularly.
So without any further delay, you can simply hand over the problem to a professional without wasting away much time.