Hot water has got black bits in, lots of

[Allnewtometoo]

Just run a bath, left it running, cane back and there are a LOT of black "bit" in the water. I've had the occasional few bits before but put it down to it being an old house/pipes/system

I've had to let the water out and am running the hot water off.

Could it be because I ran the heating for an hour yesterday for the first time in months.

I have an immersion heater.

I expect it's old limescale from the heater. Do you have similar in your kettle?

No, it's black. It's not limescale. Small bits, like a handful of soil/sand has been thrown in.

Explain your set up?

• Gas/ electric heating hot water?

When was it last serviced?

We had that when we had a large extension built. United Utilities came out and tested the water and said it was lead. We had old lead pipes (1930s semi) and they just couldn't handle all the vibrations and movement. The internal pipes were getting replaced as part of the extension anyway but we ended up having to get the pipe from the street to where it enters our house replaced using one of those mole machines.

I get this in one washbasin only.

It turned out to be coming from the pop-up plug thingy. I presume black mould had grown somewhere in or around it and the hot water swirling in loosens it

If it's all the hot taps that have had black bits in, I'd suspect the cover has come off your cold water tank in the loft and is letting debris into the water that feeds into your immersion.

Is it an electric immersion- how is this linked to heating

Heating should be in a closed system? Usually gas heated

When I had this it was something disintigrating - a washer perhaps? I needed a new boiler a couple of months later and was troubled no more.

We had brown bits in our water and it turned out a chunk of chipboard had fallen in the water tank in the loft and was slowly disintegrating. The bits were beginning to block the pipes too by the time we managed to sort it out.

If your taps are like mine, it's from them.
I still don't know why it happens, but a good scrub around them with a washing up brush sorts it. (My toilets also get a build up of black 'stuff' around the water line if they aren't used much too.)

It's oil central heating. Newish boiler and immersion heater. I caught some of the water I'm a jug and it's def coming g out of the tap with bits in, not the plug. I actually didn't check the sink/downstairs sinks but will tomorrow.

Boiler serviced a few months ago.

No idea re the header tank, could be znutging in there tbh..

The second run of the bath was a lot better.

Have you been running the immersion heater during the summer and have now switched to the boiler? Maybe it is gunk that settled during the summer and has now been washed out?

My friend is having the exact same problem. Plumber says it's the biker and the heating engineer says it's the pipes.