Tiny greasy black bits in bath water

[legosnowqueen]

Twice in the last few weeks, I have run a bath & have found 4 - 5 small black particles in the water. When I've removed them, they were greasy. No hot water tank, pretty new combo boiler (18 months old) supplies the water. Any suggestions of what this might be & who could sort it (plumber/boiler fitter/water supply). Hoping @PigletJohn might know...

I’d get a gas safe registered plumber/heating engineer to have a look.

I’m no expert but the fact that the specks are greasy makes me think degrading rubber somewhere - this could be as simple as a tap washer or might be the inside of a flexible pipe or a rubber seal within the boiler.

My (limited) knowledge would say that just because it only appears to be bathroom hot doesn’t mean it’s local to the tap, it’s possible that the increased flow demand required from the bath tap is dislodging any degraded rubber from the boiler that a lower demand hot water tap wouldn’t.

if you have no water tanks, and are not on a pumped well, then probably breaking-up rubber washers in taps. Try each tap individually into a glass bottle or jug.

Luckily, tap washers are easy to renew at trivial cost.

They wear out quicker when there is a person in the house in the habit of turning off taps with great force. usually an older person who grew up in a house with worn-out tapwashers.

Tapwashers don't need a gasman, any wrinkly old plumber can do it.

If you previously had a non-combi boiler, it's possible that the increased water pressure in the hot taps is dislodging old detritus.

Thanks both. Apparently the washers are 'quarter turn ceramics' so we think it probably isn't them...

sounds right.

I wonder what it is? You haven't recently got a water softener?

I suppose you could unscrew the aerator from the nozzle of the tap and see if it has old grime caught in it.

Thanks & apologies for the late response, it hasn't happened since so we will keep an eye on it...

Any chance you have waterfall taps, and seldom run a bath?

If so it could just be black mould (eww).

@Saz12 no, & we run at least 2 baths a day

We used to get it from emulsifier or aqueous cream that had got in the bath filler and got a bit mouldy. We just cleaned it out.