WE have grey plastic water line in our mfg home. What gives?

Question

Expense to replace i bet. WE keep getting little black stuff in our water line. what can we do.?

Answer 1

The grey tubing is poly ethelene. It is no longer used in the building industry or mobile home manufacturing. the black you are seeing is the build up in the tubing and the breakdown of the tubing itself. Sorry but its time to replace it

Answer 2

Well, the lines are grey, the stuff is black.  Obviously not from the line.      Those plastic lines are used in foundation homes too as the price of copper goes up..   Black stuff is probably black sawdust from plastic pipe cuttings elsewhere in the line.  It will flush out eventually.  There is only so much of it.   Put screens on the faucets which you may have to clean a month later or so.  But it will keep the plastic shavings out of your coffee.

Answer 3

The grey plastic is more likely ABS plastic. Polyethylene is flexible, white or clear. ( usually ) Both are still used. In fact if you have an ice maker in the fridge it is probably hooked up with poly. PVC is almost always white

As for the black stuff. Sounds like iron flakes from the water company lines. These can occur anytime but if there has been any work done on those lines lately it would be more prevalent. I would get a filter . If you are concerned, many water treatment companies will do free analysis for you ( Culligan etc )  but of course they do want to sell you a softener or RO system.

Answer 4

Possibly get a water filter for that line, especially if you are cooking with, or drinking that water.

Answer 5

This is "Pex" tubing.  "Pex" being the brand name.... it comes on a roll, and is somewhat flexible.  It IS used by several mobile home manufacturers, because it is cheaper than cpvc or copper....but their savings is your expense.  It costs more to maintain, or replace than cpvc plumbing.  For example, a plastic compression fitting made to work with Pex type plumbing costs twice as much as a brass fitting which could be used on copper or cpvc plumbing.

The Pex plumbing is put together with copper bands...which need a crimping tool to install them.  The crimping tool runs about $100, when you can find one.

Without knowing what the 'black stuff' is, its hard to say where it is coming from, but you might try a whole house water filter.  Install it at the point where the water enters your home, usually a shut off valve near the kitchen, or water heater, under the home.

If the black stuff is in just the hot water lines, then it may be coming from the hot water heater.  If it is in both lines tho, then it would be coming from the supply source, I would think.

Good Luck

Answer 6

is the house brand new? the plastic water pipes have been around for along time. it is less expensive and a lot easier to install and work with. half the time. how much black stuff? i would guess that is just mineral deposit coming loose from the city lines. city lines have been many different materials over the years. so cast iron, ceramic, clay, galvanized are all possible pipes types. many pipes corrode on the inside and will flake off little particles. if it is a whole lot than get a plummer to come out. just a little then make sure you have screens in  the faucets you are drinking from and don't worry about it in the shower or bath.