White stuff

[closedknuckle]

White build up on exterior of pipe
Anyone know what this is?

 

[Whitenuckler]

White build up on exterior of pipe
Anyone know what this is?

How long has it been installed without being touched/taken apart?

 

[closedknuckle]

How long has it been installed without being touched/taken apart?

Unknown it is at a friend's of mine. He bought the place last summer and pipe was black last fall.

 

[bholler]

White build up on exterior of pipe
Anyone know what this is?

Probably severely over heated pipe Probably a chimney fire. But the pattern looks odd. Also the pipe is upside down and clearances look questionable

 

[Slimdusty]

Is it galvanized pipe, that was painted black to match?

 

[bholler]

Is it galvanized pipe, that was painted black to match?

You may be right

 

[Highbeam]

perhaps the seller painted it for the home sale with non high temp paint. Then, it chalked up when it got hot.

 

[kborndale]

You may be right

Isn't that potentially deadly using galvanized pipe indoors?

 

[GG Woody]

Isn't that potentially deadly using galvanized pipe indoors?

Deadly? no... I could eat that pipe over time and survive. Some water lines used to be and still are galvanized.
Healthy, and, or advisable? Definitely not...
I believe the health risk would be in the zinc burning off, our bodies can handle some zinc and our bodies can process and discard it slowly. Lots at once can be harmful.
*Full disclosure, I don't know if anything I just typed is factual, it may be what I was told so that I would be comfortable working with and welding galvanized, which I do 5 days a week. We use an exhaust extraction hood while welding, it gets rid of most of the smoke. I feel no adverse effects 25yrs in...

 

[Highbeam]

I too have welded plenty of galvanized steel. The risk is way overblown, it’s not good to inhale but not bad like chlorine gas from mixing bleach and ammonia!

If it was actually galvanized, which I don’t think it is, then the bigger problem is that it is probably super thin ductwork pipe.

I’m guessing cheap paint and installed backwards letting water run out of the joints.

 

[kborndale]

I was always told that when heated galvanized pipe offgasses deadly toxins and it should not be used indoors.

 

[GG Woody]

I was always told that when heated galvanized pipe offgasses deadly toxins and it should not be used indoors.

Yes, could be deadly in large quantities. There isn't enough "galvanized" on a couple pipes to drop someone dead. Make someone ill very possibly.

 

[GG Woody]

I too have welded plenty of galvanized steel. The risk is way overblown, it’s not good to inhale but not bad like chlorine gas from mixing bleach and ammonia!

Or welding something still wet with chlorine. (brake clean)
That'll take your breath away... DAMHIK...

 

[kborndale]

To each their own, but I certainly would not be putting any galvanized stove pipe inside my house and would not be recommending anybody to do it either.

 

[Highbeam]

To each their own, but I certainly would not be putting any galvanized stove pipe inside my house and would not be recommending anybody to do it either.

Nobody is saying to install or use galvanized stove pipe. That is a misunderstanding.

Be careful about reading the word toxic and jumping to conclusions. It's all about the dose. Even water is toxic if you drink too much.