I don't know if it's inside the water heater or not. This is something that
was on the inside of the connection where the hot water comes out of the
heater, so it is travelling along with the hot water, and when I looked
closer to a section of copper pipe he cut out from the hot water supply
line, it's sort of greasy and brown.

MC

"Speedy Jim" wrote in message
...
miamicuse wrote:
The union that connects the copper pipe and the nipple that comes out of
the
heater for the hot water is corroded. I got a plumber here to replace
it.
He got here, turned off water, turned off electric, unscrewed the union
and
wow, I saw some scary stuff. Inside the union. It's black, looks like
a
pile of tar. I could not believe it. I was wondering if it could be
sewage
back flowing into the water heater, totally black yucky stuff. He
looked at
it and told me it's normal, just "stuff" from minerals in the water
getting
heated and turn into this. Is this normal? It looks scary to me, that
stuff is in the water I take shower with? Could it be sewage blackflow?

MC


Just don't drink it! LOL

He's right. Normal. Not sewage.
The water in the heater is ideal for organic growth of all kinds.
Molds thrive, some bacteria don't mind the high temps.
Worse if you are on well water, not chlorinated,
but happens on city water too.

Now the bad news.
There IS a genuine threat from Legionnaires' disease in the home.
Remember the cases some years back?
If the bacteria exists INSIDE the water heater it will be
carried off in an atomized spray by the shower head,
perfect for inhaling into the lungs!!

Read this article carefully:

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/legion.htm

Then, do a GOOGLE search for: "water heater" legionnaires

Jim