Mysterious substance in potable water

ernie1 wrote:
The junk you are seeing in your water is the material on the bottom of your water heater. This is the result of the anode rod, which is a sacrificial element,doing it's job and combining with the minerals in the water so that the tank material isn't degraded via electrolysis. You'll see a bunch of this white gunk come flowing out when you remove the anode rod to flush the water heater tank. This is,of course if your tank has an anode. Suburban water heaters have them and Atwoods don't.

I believe mine does have one, and it's mentioned in the manual.

It seemed like the chunks camp out with the restricted flow cold water faucet in my tub. I was running both hot and cold, but one at a time. The hot seemed to be going good, so I left the cold on to see if it improved. That's when I saw the material in the water.

It might be a delayed effect some how, and it only seemed to be from the cold water, but I'm not sure.

ernie1 wrote:
Charcoal water filters don't filter in the sense of filtering via a small screen. They filter via adsorption which means the material sticks to the activated charcoal and is held in place because of all the voids in the charcoal material. These filters do not work on all chemicals and calcium and magnesium being two. These are the primary hard water minerals

I see.

However, I think my manual mentioned some feature the filter had that was 'better than charcoal' or something. Maybe the organics that Francesca mentioned. Man, I wish I'd brought my manual home.

In any event, your point is well taken. Looks like I'll be enjoying the world of portable water softeners.

Now I know what the RV salesman meant when he said 'the fun never ends!'