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This is a repost of a related question, but I have changed the question. 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. 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 service lines from the street are cast iron and at least 70 years old. 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.

Results of water quality test

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  • I made a mistake. The pipes inside the house are copper.
    – domicile
    Commented Apr 12, 2020 at 20:09
  • Do you have a water softener? Is it only on the feed to the hot water supply? That's a common enough arrangement that I ask, and suspect something up with it, given significant chemical differences in the hot & cold water as tested.
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 0:43
  • The op said no softener in comments to the original question.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 15:09
  • I'd forgotten to include that. No softener. No treatment. None of the neighbors have noticed anything similar. However one neighbor has noticed that their water is more discolored than normal. It is only the hot water.
    – domicile
    Commented Apr 13, 2020 at 21:06
  • It's a new tank so it's not the anode. Your water is so hard, basically 10, that it's stripping the soap before it does its job? You actually need a softener, but not one that's too big and gets you down to 3 and then it's the same problem in reverse. Copper pipes, feed from copper, otherwise how's that dielectric looking? It is there, right? Or is it a ball of crud.
    – Mazura
    Commented Sep 10, 2023 at 21:58

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Higher pH means higher alkalinty, pH away from 7 feels soapy to the touch. This is easily verified if you have a spa pool. So it is the pH that is causing your issue.

If you can afford it, get a more comprehensive analysis. Either there is something leaching into the water (unlikely). Or the temperature elevation is removing something from the water (which was balancing the pH). Maybe, lowering the temperature of your hot water will help.

9.96 is not good for the skin, so you should consider investing in a resolution.

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  • That is a much higher pH (because of the way the pH scale works). But it might not be real. Electronic pH meters are temperature-dependent and if no, or a wrong, temperature correction was used, the number could be way off. Only if the water was cooled to room temp and measured with the pH meter set to room temp, would I trust it. Of course other indicators of pH are available. They may also be temperature-dependent
    – Chris H
    Commented Sep 11, 2023 at 10:01

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