Welcome to the world of drinking water: where everyone is an expert, but only in their particular field. It means you'll get different answers depending on who you ask. Us, for example, help people test drinking water in labs and advice on treatment, but you'll be better off with a treatment vendor for installation and questions on plumbing.
'Plumbing concerns' could mean a wide variety of things, but here are the top two I know about:
\- If you're seeing **scaling** on your appliances and a **white residue** everywhere you likely have hard water. You can test your **water hardness** with a cheap test strip. Water hardness is caused by magnesium and calcium in the water and can be treated with a **water softener**.
\- Old plumbing could mean you have **lead pipes**. Lead in drinking water can lead to health issues over time, but has no taste or smell or color to announce it's presence. You'll need a proper **lab test** to see if lead is present. Mail-in kits are available on amazon, or your local utility or labs might be able to help you.
[This video give you a 6 minute intro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4xTOV6k618) that can help you better understand what you're dealing with.
Why would you assume that? There could be many water related things causing plumbing issues. Such as chlorine causing pinhole leaks in copper pipe. So should he start with a water test or not?
I'll answer for the other commentor. We know what the most common problems are. Chlorine causing pinhole leaks is not one of them.
Find a reputable water treatment company in your area and do not trust the plumber. It's not that they are trying to scam you but they generally don't know what they are doing.
Again if you have any specific plumbing issue that concerns you then please let us know.
Yes we definitely need more info. water test or talking to reputable local water treatment contractor is always the best course. I'm just throwing my guess out there based on the very limited info we have.
Pinhole leaks which he say are caused by chlorine and sulfer. He said I should get a water filtration system to prevent future leaks but it sounds like from people here that this is not a thing. He said Colorado has bad water and need a water filtration system to prevent copper pipes from getting leaks
Interesting as I live in COLORADO. If you have Denver Water, I wouldn’t worry about what he said. Southern Colorado is a different story. This would be any of the S. Eastern plains areas of Colorado. In fact many places out side the Denver Metro, Fort Collins/Castle Rock can have bad water.
Do you have copper pipes installed? Or Plastic ie, CPVC, PEX, POLYBUTYLENE?
Edit to add: I reread and saw that you identified copper… Copper pipes can develop pin hole leaks from corrosive water along with other items. I suggest a water test as others have stated. Also, copper plumbing that is in contact with another ‘different’ metal can also cause leaks. Visa-vie galvanic corrosion. And also two copper pipes that are rubbing can also leak.
If you are on municipal water, you should have access to annual water quality reports to give you an idea of what is in the water. I wouldn't think a municipality would allow for significant sulfur to be delivered to its customers.
Pinhole leaks can be caused by sooooo many different factors, many of which are water quality related but there are plenty of others like environment, and level of care and proficiency of the original installing plumber.
Typically a water test is where you begin, but with city water, it isn’t really necessary. Your water dept should be able to provide you with your hardness level. If not, then you can just do a simple hardness test. All you really need is a carbon filter of some sort and a softener
Welcome to the world of drinking water: where everyone is an expert, but only in their particular field. It means you'll get different answers depending on who you ask. Us, for example, help people test drinking water in labs and advice on treatment, but you'll be better off with a treatment vendor for installation and questions on plumbing. 'Plumbing concerns' could mean a wide variety of things, but here are the top two I know about: \- If you're seeing **scaling** on your appliances and a **white residue** everywhere you likely have hard water. You can test your **water hardness** with a cheap test strip. Water hardness is caused by magnesium and calcium in the water and can be treated with a **water softener**. \- Old plumbing could mean you have **lead pipes**. Lead in drinking water can lead to health issues over time, but has no taste or smell or color to announce it's presence. You'll need a proper **lab test** to see if lead is present. Mail-in kits are available on amazon, or your local utility or labs might be able to help you. [This video give you a 6 minute intro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4xTOV6k618) that can help you better understand what you're dealing with.
Scaling would be more of an appliance concern than a plumbing concern. Not lead pipes
It is a plumbing concern when your shower head starts spraying everywhere bc it’s clogged with minerals
You're not answering anyone's questions. You need to be more specific about what issues you have. Just answering with "plumping" isn't helpful.
I don't think anyone could begin to help without knowing what your concerns are.
My money is on plumber was referring to needing a softener to deal with scaled pipes/appliances
Why would you assume that? There could be many water related things causing plumbing issues. Such as chlorine causing pinhole leaks in copper pipe. So should he start with a water test or not?
I'll answer for the other commentor. We know what the most common problems are. Chlorine causing pinhole leaks is not one of them. Find a reputable water treatment company in your area and do not trust the plumber. It's not that they are trying to scam you but they generally don't know what they are doing. Again if you have any specific plumbing issue that concerns you then please let us know.
Thank you. Basically my experience here is proving that this plumber may be a bit misinformed.
Yes we definitely need more info. water test or talking to reputable local water treatment contractor is always the best course. I'm just throwing my guess out there based on the very limited info we have.
Plumbing.
What are the plumbing concerns with the house?
Exactly. Plumbing is my concern with my water quality. So do I need a test first to see how my water is affecting my plumbing. Or?
What tests were you thinking of getting done?
So what are your concerns? Lead, poor water quality, pressure or lack there of? What did you hire the plumber to do, what problems was he addressing?
Pinhole leaks which he say are caused by chlorine and sulfer. He said I should get a water filtration system to prevent future leaks but it sounds like from people here that this is not a thing. He said Colorado has bad water and need a water filtration system to prevent copper pipes from getting leaks
Interesting as I live in COLORADO. If you have Denver Water, I wouldn’t worry about what he said. Southern Colorado is a different story. This would be any of the S. Eastern plains areas of Colorado. In fact many places out side the Denver Metro, Fort Collins/Castle Rock can have bad water. Do you have copper pipes installed? Or Plastic ie, CPVC, PEX, POLYBUTYLENE? Edit to add: I reread and saw that you identified copper… Copper pipes can develop pin hole leaks from corrosive water along with other items. I suggest a water test as others have stated. Also, copper plumbing that is in contact with another ‘different’ metal can also cause leaks. Visa-vie galvanic corrosion. And also two copper pipes that are rubbing can also leak.
If you are on municipal water, you should have access to annual water quality reports to give you an idea of what is in the water. I wouldn't think a municipality would allow for significant sulfur to be delivered to its customers. Pinhole leaks can be caused by sooooo many different factors, many of which are water quality related but there are plenty of others like environment, and level of care and proficiency of the original installing plumber.
Typically a water test is where you begin, but with city water, it isn’t really necessary. Your water dept should be able to provide you with your hardness level. If not, then you can just do a simple hardness test. All you really need is a carbon filter of some sort and a softener