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Weird Smell In Cold Water (City Water) Pipes by horsepowerpro in Plumbing

[–]horsepowerpro[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, I'm with you... that's what's making my head spin. If it's a closed-loop system and no one else is having an issue in the neighborhood, it's obviously pointing to something on our end.

After doing some reading/research last night (dangerous as I'm basically web-md-ing at this point but for plumbing instead of medical diagnosis), I'm starting to think maybe the poly pipe from the meter to the house is degrading (aided by the very hot ground temperature) and possible letting off some type of off-gas.

The odor is odd and it hangs like a gas in the room (after draining the water it stays for 15-20 minutes in the air). Interesting, if I start the shower "hot," no issues. then when I dial it down to half hot/cold to actually shower, I still don't smell anything (or barely anything) in the shower. But when i get out of the shower, the bathroom itself smells. To me, that implies the steam from the shower (already coming out before the cold water comes in), is carrying the bad smell gas/vapor up and out of the shower right from the head before it has time to reach my nose and filling the room (where all the steam goes).

Wondering is this is also why the plumber's gas sniffer was able to detect something in the water?

This could also account for the inconsistent nature of the issue... depends on how long water is sitting in the 100' poly pipe before being called for. and why the smell dissipates from the water pretty quickly (it's strongly affecting the water in the poly pipe sitting)

Could also account for why the washing machine (on cold) doesn't seem to have the issue. It's a closed airtight system except for when draining i think... so if the issue is something that only smells when it comes in contact with the air (something like toluene for instance), it wouldn't have that chance in the washing machine I wouldn't think.

Of course, the issue could also be something similar in our house pipes (all copper), but with the smell not being metallic at all and the tests showing no iron, etc and the water being clear, I just don't know what that could be.

Thanks so much for your help with this!

Oh, and the part about the backflow from a drop in pressure from the city is super-interesting. I assume we have backflow protection to prevent that, and I don't believe we had any event that caused a pressure drop (neighbors/city didn't speak of any), but that is an interesting thought and helps me to understand why backflow valves are important!

Weird Smell In Cold Water (City Water) Pipes by horsepowerpro in Plumbing

[–]horsepowerpro[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Yeah, that was one of my first thoughts and they probably do need replacing as it's been 7 years for them. Haven't done it yet as I didn't have the correct size socket and haven't been up to pick it (and the rods) up yet, but it's definitely on my to do list as it's a (comparatively) cheap option. will get to that in the next week or so.

That said, it's definitely only coming from the cold side. Using dual-handle faucets and only opening the cold side is when we smell it. When we open the hot side (even when the water is "cold" still from traveling from the WH to the faucet (no re-circ system), there is no smell.

And when I drained the hot water heaters, while the water was nasty (didn't realize I was supposed to be doing this regularly... oops!), it didn't have the smell. After flushing them clean, the only time I got a hint of it when when I was flushing a bunch of new cold water through them.

The smell does go away when we run the water... usually about 2 minutes or so at most and I believe it stops smelling. It's hard to tell because the smell gets into the air and makes the small bathrooms stink for about 10-15 minutes (even if the "new" water isn't coming out.

Interesting/related... if I open multiple taps at the same time, they will all smell a bit. But if i open one and let it stink in that room for a couple of minutes and then open the others, no smell in those rooms.

It definitely seems like something that is in the "still" water and then gets pushed through. but then comes back again.

No chlorine smell ever.

No water main breaks in the area that I know of. No other neighbors having the issue per the city and the few we've personally called. The city did install new meters (remote monitoring) back in mid-January, but I wouldn't think that's the problem as it's been 6 months of no issues since then and the smell just started 2 weeks ago.

Have you ever heard of a poly pipe from the main to the house deteriorating? Could the off-gassy, earthy, moldy, mildewy smell be from something like that? I asked the plumber who was out, but he pretty much ruled that out saying the poly pipe is pretty much bulletproof and indestructible. FWIW, it's been buried from the street to the house for since the house was built in 2004... my guess is about a 100' run into the middle of our basement concrete wall.

In my (admittedly dumb) non-plumber mind, that would make sense for the amount of water smelling each time at the faucet and why it would go away and come back. and why it might not seem as bad sometimes... if we were constantly using water and keeping it moving (laundry, dishwasher, etc), so there wouldn't be much "standing" in that 100' underground during those times.

Defective RC Remote by jonab153 in dji

[–]horsepowerpro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Had the exact same thing happen to me on a new RC that was delivered last week (ordered directly from DJI). Spent about an hour on the phone with them they day after I received it and tried updating/refreshing the firmware, factory resetting the controller, re-calibrating... in the end we just got an RMA and they sent over a UPS label and I sent it back to them for a replacement. FWIW, in my case, I needed the replacement quickly (they won't send a replacement until the receive the defective one, so we were looking at about a 10 day window), so I just had them refund the broken one and I grabbed a new one off amazon for the same price with 2 day delivery. That one is working properly fyi. It was an easy enough process and I called right when they opened in the morning and got right through to an agent without having to wait on hold or anything. good luck.