Copyright newsweek
An Illinois woman was left horrified after turning on the jets in her bathtub for the first time in her house, after moving in six years ago. Sara Crow, 33, filmed the aftermath, and shared the shocking moment in a viral TikTok video that can be seen here. After she finally decided to test out the jets, the tub instantly filled with filthy water. “Oh. My. Gawd. Holy moldy,” the clip caption said. Crow, who moved into her home in 2019, said she had avoided using the bathtub’s jets because she already suspected they might be filled with grime. “We moved into this house in June of 2019,” Crow told Newsweek. “I never wanted to use or clean the jets because I already knew the previous owners never used the bathtub in all the years they lived there. I figured it would be full of mold and a big job to clean it out.” Screenshots from the viral video where Sara turned on the bath jets for the first time. But after sending her youngest child off to school, Crow decided she finally had the time to face the task. “My youngest is off to kindergarten and I have some extra time on my hands and I decided that was the day I was going to see what came out of them,” she said. “I had watched other people cleaning their jetted tubs on TikTok and wanted to do mine.” When she finally switched on the jets, murky black water immediately erupted from the pipes. “My first reaction was oh my gosh this is worse than I thought. I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said. In the now-viral, Crow starts by taking all the covers off the jets, as she throws dishwasher pod in the filled bath to help clean out the pipework. She drains the tub and runs it again to clean out all the mold, and adds a second dishwasher pod to help deep-clean the jets. “The couple who lived here before us never used this bathtub, so I’m telling you right now these jets have probably never been turned on at least in a good like, 10 years,” she says explains in the video. The mold build up in the jets was clear, and it is no surprise it had grown in the tub as black mold often grows in areas with lots of moisture. Mold can cause many health problems, particularly for people with asthma or mold allergies, as well as immune-compromised people. “I have run the jets twice and there is still debris coming out of them but it definitely doesn’t look like it did in this video,” Crow said. Pictures of the bath after the jets were run for the first time in years. Crow regularly shares glimpses of her home life on social media, and said filming the cleanup was second nature. The video on TikTok has more than 22 million views as many people were stunned by the dirt in the jets. “Imagine you got curious and turned it on while in the tub without cleaning it,” said one commenter. Another wrote: “How do you or they have a jetted tub and never use it?! I’d clean it and use it every night!!” “That was so much worse than I could’ve imagined,” wrote another viewer. “I honestly love sharing my life on TikTok and Instagram,” Crow said. “That is just part of my routine to set my phone up and film this kind of stuff. After I saw what came out of the tub I knew I had to share it with the world. I never expected the video to go viral and for thousands of people to comment.” In 2024 an influencer sparked debate when he shared that he always cleans the tub in his hotel room before going in. “Don’t just get in the hot tub in your hotel room,” he told his followers, before revealing how he fills the tub with hot water and bleach to clean it before relaxing.
