So kitchens and bathrooms need cleaned regularly. The moisture and food in these rooms specifically make it easy for pathogens to grow. Plenty of people get mould problems in their homes. Kitchens need cleaned with disinfectant sprays to make them safe to produce food in.
What about the inside of taps though? Depending on the age of your house, the pipes and taps could be decades old, and will have never been cleaned on the inside, yet we don’t think twice about pouring a glass of water. Why is this? How are the insides not full of rust, grime and bacteria?
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Plummer here. I’m not going to talk on there being bacteria because I know nothing of that but when it comes to rust and build it depends on the type of water pipe. Newer plastic pipe called pex never rusts or grows build up because well it’s plastic. But older galvanized pipe (iron) over decades will build up so much rust you can’t even see light through the other side. Copper pipe is different though it will never rust or accumulate build up no matter how long it’s is there but it busts easily in cold weather. Although copper will build up corrosion on the outside if it is in contact with any wires with electricity or just metal in general. Now sewer pipes are a whole different story and you don’t want me to get into that. It doesn’t affect your health and will never interfere with your water in any way but you just really don’t want to know what I’ve seen
Not trying to be rude in any way, but why do people talk like that? “Bathrooms need cleaned” vs “Bathrooms need to be cleaned” ?
I’ve heard this phrasing so much that I’m sure it’s acceptable but it makes my stomach hurt.
Domestically, the ‘end of lines’ in a water systems do need to be flushed periodically to prevent bacteria from growing.
Back when I was in high school, we’d come back from summer vacation and the fountain water would run a reddish-brown, presumably from rust in the pipes. But after running it for a minute or less, the water ran clear and would stay that way the rest of the year with normal use. So, I’m thinking not only the chlorinated water helps, but the regular movement of water through the pipes helps to clear any debris that might otherwise have gathered.
I have well water, and we’re still using the original well from 1952… It wasn’t shocked properly, or often enough, so we had a very constant flow of algae growing in our pipes and toilets.
We shocked it really well last year… Now it’s a constant stream of dead algae. O.o
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I purchased a home built in the 80’s where the previous owner replaced the pipe from the meter at the curb to the main inlet near the house with this old stuff called Quest pipe, a precursor to pex pipe. Should I worry more about bacteria? I’ve already had to repair 3 breaks in the line; dig, cut, mend. Would love to replace it with copper but the line runs under a large driveway and I was recently quoted 5 grand for the job.
[Google tuberculation](https://www.google.com/search?q=tuberculation). The insides of older pipes are nasty. Heck, look at your shower head and you’ll likely see hard water build-up.
As for why we don’t worry about bacteria — Municipal tap water contains low concentrations of chlorine which is a disinfectant that effectively kills waterborne bacteria and pathogens and/or keeps them from replicating in the system. Yes, if you tested your water for bacteria, you’d probably find some, but their concentration is low enough not to be a health concern. Plus, when bacteria of concern are detected in tap water (like e. coli), boil water notices go out.
Because water runs through them often enough that most things that would start building up get rinsed away pretty quickly. Have you ever taken a dirty dish, put it in the sink, then turned on the water and watched how much of the gunk on the dish gets pushed away immediately, well that’s basically going on inside of the pipe whenever it’s turned on.
chlorine and filtration
regular maintenance of infrastructure
regular monitoring of water quality
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