Seeing plastic debris stuck in our shower faucet valve second time in a week. Caused it to not close completely and leak. First picture shows the white plastic crumpled and stuck in the valve (like a foot thru a door that prevents it from closing completely).
The second picture shows the stiff plastic debris unfolded with a quarter for scale.
What is the likely source of this? What's a good way to isolate this if possible?
Additional data points:
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We had a new Rheem water heater installed last year after our 1993 water heater leaked last year. I see some talks about '93 – '96 dip tubes being made of plastic that tend to disintegrate; but even after a year??
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This is in the San Diego, Carmel Del Mar area and happened on the first shower from the house water mains, so I'll check with the city too.
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The plastic is medium hard – kinda like a hard plastic bag (but not like hard molded plastic)
Best Answer
I can assure you that is most definitely dip tube debris. If your water is excessively hot it could fail prematurely. If it was installed with heat directly on the water heater nipple the heat could have damaged it, causing it to fall into the tank and now it is falling apart from flopping around the tank and laying up against the heat exchanger if gas, or against the elements if electric. Easy way to tell is to remove the nipple on the cold side of the water heater. If the dip tube isn't there, you know it fell in from installation damage or has fallen apart.