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>> This is what is in your hot water tank right now Does anyone think the inside of a ~20 year-old cold water feed pipe is going to look shiny and "clean"? Go
by logifail 8y ago
>> This is what is in your hot water tank right now
Does anyone think the inside of a ~20 year-old cold water feed pipe is going to look shiny and "clean"?
Go take an electron micrograph of the bacteria on your skin, or use a microscope to look closely at the living things inside your bed, in your sofa, or on your pet.
Then take a deep breath, check the causes of death tables if you really have to, and remember that - given we're all intelligent humans - none of these "eww, gross!" things really matter in the overall scheme of things.
- MertsA 8y agoYeah the cold water side will look dramatically better. It certainly will have deposits accumulating but it's not going to be anything close to the amount of deposits that form inside of a water heater. Heating up hard water will chemically alter the water going through it. It's not that those calcium carbonate molecules were in solution before, it's pretty insoluble in water, it's that they were chemically formed when the water was heated. I'm not suggesting that those deposits are going to kill you or anything, but if things go wrong and the water isn't heated enough those deposits make a great substrate for harmful bacteria to grow. Ideally you shouldn't use hot water for consumption even though normally it's safe. It also tastes different than cold water because of the change.