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yuphorix
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Posted: Mon Sep 8th, 2008 04:41 pm |
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Hi all,
So, for the past several months, I've noticed that my laundry is coming out with a sticky residue, although it's less noticeable on finer cotton clothes like dress shirts, but is very noticeable on towels. However, even with dress shirts, the stickiness will rub off onto my hands while ironing. What gets me most worried is that when it gets on my hands, soap & water doesn't do a good job of getting rid of it. As this stuff slowly rubs off elsewhere around the house, it could cause problems in the future.
I've ruled out the notion that it's the washer that's causing it, since the same effect occurs when I handwash brand new towels. It's also no the detergent, as I've tried several brands. I suspect it's something in the water that's causing it. And along with how the water is reacting with soaps and detergents, it's creating the sticky substance (washing towels in plain water yields no stickiness). We do have fairly hard water (9 gpg), but that has never caused a problem in the 5 years we've lived in his house.
A couple of weeks ago, I spent about 3 hours flushing out a 15 year old water heater and got about 3-4 cups of this jelly like substance. The jelly is somewhat transparant, is sorta light beige colored, and smears into white paste. Yes, the water heater was installed in 1994 so it could be the plastic dip tube that's causing the jelly, but we've never had water cooling down issues, so my guess is that the jelly is caused by an aluminum anode. And, most people are recommending is that at 15 years old, the water heater should probably be replaced anyways (which I plan to have done soon).
My question is, is the water heater the likely causes of my laundry woes? Our water heater is in the basement, but we've never had issues with the jelly stuff coming out of our taps or elsewhere. That doesn't mean it isn't in our pipes, since my assumption is the stuff floats since we did not get these sediments coming out until close to fully emptying the tank (or the water from the entire house for that matter). But, wouldn't this stuff also have to be semi soluable to be able to get in our water without detection? I'm really stuck on how to address this issue.
P.S. And I will never take clean laundry for granted ever again!
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elenano
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Posted: Mon Sep 8th, 2008 05:04 pm |
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I expect others will comment, too. The jelly is definitely aluminum corrosion byproduct. Most of the time, it falls into the bottom of the water heater and stays there, but I have encountered the occasional case where it floated out the tap to appear as something like cottage cheese. Your dip tube could be disintegrating. But neither should cause the sticky stuff on your clothes. Do you, by chance, have braided stainless steel flex lines?
Randy Schuyler
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yuphorix
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Posted: Mon Sep 8th, 2008 05:31 pm |
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Hey Randy,
Thanks for the quick reply. Sorry, I am not very knowledgeable on alot of plumbing stuff. Really, everything I've learned has happened in the last few months due to this issue. So, I'm not sure what a stainless steal flex line is and how that may/may not impact the situation.
Another note. When I was flushing out my water heater, at the very end of the flushing, I had white water coming out, as if it was a heavy mixture of calcium and water. Seems like alot is going on in my water heater...
And FYI, the water heater is a gas water heater.
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eleent
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Posted: Tue Sep 9th, 2008 04:07 am |
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Hello: How would you describe the sticky residue.. color, texture? Do you have a recirculation line for quick hot water? What is the plumbing in your house made of? It's a long shot, but have you changed laundry detergents? Questions 
Yours, Larry
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elenano
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Posted: Tue Sep 9th, 2008 04:11 am |
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Most connecting plumbing is flexible copper or soldered copper, but it's also possible, in an older place, to be galvanized steel, or it could have stainless steel flex connectors. Those would appear to be either corrugated or braided. The latter is what I was wondering about.
Randy Schuyler
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yuphorix
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Posted: Tue Sep 9th, 2008 05:43 pm |
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The sticky residue feels greasy when dry (but not slippery), and the stickiness comes in when there's moisture on the surface. It's definitely when wet that's most noticeable. The other way to describe it is if you've ever had clothing or towels that didn't rinse soap/detergent out properly, you will notice that it leaves a greasy film on your skin, and when wet it gets a sticky. I don't know but that's the best way I can describe it.
Despite the fact that it feels like soap/detergent is left on the clothing, they actually rinse cleanly (no signs of detergent in water). Originally I had thought it was detergent residue, since alot of people talk about how the popular detergents leave stuff on our clothes. But, I've hand washed/rinsed multiple hand towels with different detergents and gotten the same effect.
My guess is that something in the water is mixing with the detergent and binding to my laundry and creating the effect that detergent hasn't rinsed out. Hard water could be part of the problem, but at 9gpg, it shouldn't be causing that big of a problem (I think).
Interesting fact: When I was flushing out the water heater, I got the jelly stuff all over my hands. Afterwards, when I went to wash my hands, soap and water did not do a good job of cleaning it out. If the jelly stuff was semi-soluable, I wonder if it could cause what I am experiencing. I guess there's just too much going on in my water heater.
My house was built in 1994, so fairly recent. I'll have to check what kind of piping we have in our house, but I'm pretty certain we don't have a recirculation line.
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eleent
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Posted: Wed Sep 10th, 2008 07:46 am |
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Hello: Things are not adding up yet, but one thought is to try a cold water detergent to see if using no hot changes the outcome. Aluminum corrosion byproduct is common in heaters, yet your problems aren't. If there were a problem with drainage, it might affect things, but that is only a guess. If we knew just what the sticky stuff was, it would narrow down the possibilities. Do let us know if using only cold water changes things.
Yours, Larry
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