I wanted to check in with you regarding an issue I'm having with the kitchen sink. For the past few months, the water coming from the kitchen faucet (and only the kitchen faucet) has had a distinct smell of mildew. The smell is worse when the water hasn’t been run for a while, leading us to think that there is an issue somewhere in the kitchen plumbing that is contaminating the water when it sits in the pipes. I have taken apart the faucet and cleaned what I can, but it hasn’t helped.
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you can try using Drano every other day for a week... sounds like there is something growing down there, you could also (separately from the drano) dump some 90% rubbing alcohol down there, or even hydrogen peroxide. Remember to rinse the pipes with a lot of water between trying these different chemicals... I bet multiple drano flushes, or the alcohol will work the best. Are you sure you have a drain trap installed under your sink? If not gases from the pipes are coming up into your kitchen, and you need to install a drain trap. |
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Assuming that you have good clean city water. Good City tap water doesn't really have all of the nutrients that allow mildew to survive, so it has to be getting them from somewhere else. First I would check the faucet itself. It might have some mildew growing in the spout. If this seems to be the case, I would somehow get as much chlorine bleach in there as I could. You might be able to just take the faucet apart to clean it, if this is the case take it apart, and allow it to sit in heavily chlorinated water for a while. If you can't take it apart, you could somehow attach a hose to the end of it, and pour the chlorine into the faucet that way. If you don't like the faucet anyway, and it is leaking, or heavily clogged. I would recommend just replacing it. You might not be able to get it thoroughly clean anyway, and would have to clean it again soon. If it doesn't appear to be in the faucet itself: I would follow the plumbing from the kitchen sink to the nearest connection to a faucet that doesn't have this problem. If you notice any discoloration this could mean that you have a slow leak, that is allowing the mildew to get nutrients from somewhere else. You would really only notice the problem at the faucet, if you didn't have sufficient water pressure to start with. The reason for this, is that the water pressure would have pushed the mildew out through the leak. If you happen to be looking at your plumbing anyway, I would check for joints that have been soldered with lead based solder. You should probably be able to use those lead based paint tests. Lead based solder joints will probably have a dull light grey dust like covering, this is from it reacting with the air. |
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