Sink with rust colored deposits, just below the overflow. Getting them
off is not a problem, but I dont' understand why they are there and not
on the other 2 sinks.

I have 3 bathrooms with almost identical sinks, except one is alittle
bigger, and only one shows this. It is the sink I use the most but the
others don't show even a trace.

The overflow is at the front of sink (closest to the person using it)
and I never fill the sink, never have more than an inch of water in it,
so the overflow is never used. Yet on that one sink, there are dark
orange deposits, especially heavy on the lower lip of the overflow
entrance, and quickly tapering off from there, but going down 3 inches.

How can there be deposits when that part of the sink never gets wet?

On 11/7/2023 8:17 AM, micky wrote:
> Sink with rust colored deposits, just below the overflow. Getting them
> off is not a problem, but I dont' understand why they are there and not
> on the other 2 sinks.
>
> I have 3 bathrooms with almost identical sinks, except one is alittle
> bigger, and only one shows this. It is the sink I use the most but the
> others don't show even a trace.
>
> The overflow is at the front of sink (closest to the person using it)
> and I never fill the sink, never have more than an inch of water in it,
> so the overflow is never used. Yet on that one sink, there are dark
> orange deposits, especially heavy on the lower lip of the overflow
> entrance, and quickly tapering off from there, but going down 3 inches.
>
> How can there be deposits when that part of the sink never gets wet?

Water splashes around inside the drain passages when you open the drain
with a full sink?

On Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 11:17:40 AM UTC-5, micky wrote:
> Sink with rust colored deposits, just below the overflow. Getting them
> off is not a problem, but I dont' understand why they are there and not
> on the other 2 sinks.
>
> I have 3 bathrooms with almost identical sinks, except one is alittle
> bigger, and only one shows this. It is the sink I use the most but the
> others don't show even a trace.
>
> The overflow is at the front of sink (closest to the person using it)
> and I never fill the sink, never have more than an inch of water in it,
> so the overflow is never used. Yet on that one sink, there are dark
> orange deposits, especially heavy on the lower lip of the overflow
> entrance, and quickly tapering off from there, but going down 3 inches.
>
> How can there be deposits when that part of the sink never gets wet?

Maybe it does get wet from occasional splashing and the opening gathers
some of it, then a couple drops drip down slowly, it evaporates?

On Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 9:51:16 AM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
> > How can there be deposits when that part of the sink never gets wet?
> Maybe it does get wet from occasional splashing and the opening gathers
> some of it, then a couple drops drip down slowly, it evaporates?

I had the same thing happen and shared my bafflement with my family.

My daughter said she used that sink to tie-dye a t-shirt.

Mystery solved.

In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 8 Nov 2023 08:57:24 -0800 (PST), TimR
<timothy42bach@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 9:51:16?AM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
>> > How can there be deposits when that part of the sink never gets wet?
>> Maybe it does get wet from occasional splashing and the opening gathers
>> some of it, then a couple drops drip down slowly, it evaporates?

Interesting part starts at *****

That would account for it, but it seems unlikely. I never have more
than an inch of water in the sink, if even that, never splash in the
sink (I save that for the bathtub) and the water here comes seems pretty
mineral-free. It has no mineral taste and when I've let a bottle of tap
water sit for 6 months or a year, it still looks and tasts the same as
when fresh**.

But I will experiment by letting some water evaporate, again and again,
and see if anything shows up.

**(I've decided not to do this anymore, because even one germ could turn
into billions in 6 months. They were going to turn off the water for a
day so I filled some bottles and then never emptied them.

***** Baltimore city was decades behind some cities in some municipal
ways, but they built 3 reservoirs in farmland or maybe woodland 20 or 25
miles from downtown. All the water goes downtown first where it's
"processed" and then piped to the city and the suburbs, 3 or more
counties. As much as 300 million gallons a day.

When they were building one of the reservoirs, the engineer in charge
wanted a pipe from the Susquehanna river, to supply water if there
wasn't enough rain. It was 38 miles away and people objected to the
cost -- it was a 9-foot diameter pipe and required a pump at the eastern
end to raise it up 250 feet, to go over some hill I guess*** -- but I
guess he had enough status to prevail. The pipe was built -- it took 13
years to dig, finishing in 1966 -- but never used for almost 40 years,
until a drought in 1999. The engineer was vindicated. Ooops. I
thought for sure I read that '99 was the first time, but a page from the
Baltimore Sun says it was the 9th time. So he was vindicated 9 times.
Maybe I read that it was used 8 times but the need was critical the last
time.

***The article says it take 2 days for the first water to go 38 miles,
because it had to push ahead of it musty stagnant water that had been in
the pipe for 5 years. (Does that flow more slowly than fresh water?) Or
course the river water required more treatment, and they did that, and I
don't think this relates to the orange spots on my sink.

See httops://rep5355.com/tag/tunnel/ with pictures.

For more info google The Big Inch or Susquehanna Conduit.

>I had the same thing happen and shared my bafflement with my family.
>
>My daughter said she used that sink to tie-dye a t-shirt.
>
>Mystery solved.

I bought some tan dye once -- I forget what it was for -- but never used
it, so my mystery is still unsolved.