I noticed in late February that even immediately after washing my hair, it felt and looked greasy and that my bath water felt as though it had a bit of bath oil in it. The town water department thought that it might have to do with my water heater.

Before I got around to having it flushed, I noticed that it was leaking from the bottom. I had it replaced on March 17, but the problem persists.

The town tested my water on March 30. The following day they told me that all was normal, except that the hot water was a few points higher in Ph level. The cold water is 7.80, while the hot is 9.96.
The result of the test are below.

I don't know if the higher pH level, iron, manganese or alkalinity has something to do with not being able to rinse the conditioner out, and I am left with an oily residue in my hair. If I just shampoo, I don't have the problem. Likewise, if I rinse with cold water only, I don't have the problem.

My house was built in 1947 and has copper pipes. The city service lines are cast iron and at least 70 years old, as are those from the street. I don't see any sheen or film on the water, but I do feel it--only with the hot water. I don't notice any odor.

Thanks!

Results of water quality test are below:

_______________Cold Water__________________________________________Hot Water

pH________________7.80_______________________________________________9.96
Alk________________28________________________________________________36
Turb._____________0.96_______________________________________________0.96
Color______________18________________________________________________18
Fe________________0.53mg/L___________________________________________0.33mg/L
Mn________________0.006 mg/L_________________________________________0.008 mg/L
Conductivity______183 uS_____________________________________________203 uS

First question.Are the neighbors having the same Problem?....ask 3 or 4 not just 1.

No, they aren't. I've asked those on both sides and one up the street. One of my next-door neighbors has noticed that her water has been more discolored than usual--we always have a little discoloration that I assume comes from rust.

when ever i have a request from a customer to install a filter, i never tell them which one to get.

i (and i assume many here) just do not know enough about what is in a water supply to recommend what type filter is needed to remove what needs to be removed.

i can tell you that if your piping is copper and the water heater is new that none of what you experiencing is coming from inside your home.

does your city/town have a water dept engineer who can interpret those results?

if not, e-mail them to a large water filter manufacturer so they can give you their opinion.

If your neighbor is having the same problem it's not just your hot water.Your cold water pipes don't store 40 gallons of water like your water heater does.When that amount of water in a large vessel just sits there not being used any rust or sediment will settle to the bottom of the tank...when you turn on your hot water spout it(the rust) gets kicked up from the bottom of the tank thus you notice it more.I would have to say a simple rust & sediment filter on the main might do the trick.As far as the Greasy feeling (?) can't help you with that. The Problem you are having does occur at the end of municipal water run's (farthest in the water system supply)



Edited 1 times.

Thanks. One possibility that I've found is that bacteria may have begun to grow somewhere in the pipes--if, by chance, there was an air bubble in there somehow. The city said that they might be willing to do a test for bacteria, but asked me to call back in a few weeks. Does that sound possible? That it's coming from bacteria that is growing the the pipe somewhere either leading to or from the water heater?

Thanks.

are your neighbors you asked using the same brand of conditioner you are using?

you said if you just shampoo no issue, or if you rinse with only cold water no issue. May be look into whether it may be the actual conditioner, if it may be too strong, or you used too much of it, or even if the temperature is not optimum for conditioners. Here is from a hair care article "there's an ideal temperature to wash your hair at to avoid build up and grease. Because super hot water stimulates the sebaceous gland, which secretes oil, your hair will look and feel greasier if you take hot showers. Wash your hair with warm water to allow your shampoos and conditioners to penetrate your hair follicles, and then finish with a cool rinse instead."

cities and towns chlorinate the water supply. sometimes more sometimes less but they constantly check for bacteria.
as for your water heater, turn the temperature up very high overnight.
be awfully careful when you turn on a faucet because you can get scalded.
put the heater setting back where it was and let the water run at all faucets and showers for a minute or two.
this should take care of the heater and the hot water piping.

I'd thought that might be the case too, but I've tried many others. Also, I'd been using the conditioner for years before this happened. I suspect that either there's some reason the water's won't rinse the oils that are in conditioners or that something in the hot water is reacting to the chemicals in the conditioner--something affecting the water's solvency properties.

Good idea. Thanks!

Hmm, I don't even know what else to advise you.