Plumbing Questions
 

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Possible build up of scale in the heater/pipes/valves/??? It depends on some factors such as age, type of plumbing, etc. Old galvanized pipe can scale up over time. If that's the case, if you don't have a water softener, it might be a good idea to install one after the problem is identified & solved. I'm not an expert, so I'll be interested in what somebody chimes in to say who knows what they're talking about.

Long term is probably scale or peeling inside iron pipe. Have to replace.

It might help a bit to take off the sink diffusers and shower head.......back-flush or blow out with air.
-They are probably clogged with sediment kicked up from the WH.
-It can get trapped behind sink/shower valves.
-This happens when the city flushes the fire hydrants also.


The shower in a condo once stopped working.
Third floor.
Plumber pulled the cartridge, and found a piece of rusty old piece of hardware had been floating around in the pipes, clogging the valve.
"$175 smackeroos pls."
That was an expensive screw.

^ this

Just remove the aerator and clean out the sediment and you will be god to go. That will be 95 bucks sir for the service.

Many years ago I thought my water heater was clogged.
I was ready to replace it when I removed the flexible copper pipe off the outlet. That flex pipe was about 75% clogged at the fitting with scale.

I replaced that copper flex pipe and solved the issue for $10.

This may have nothing to do with your situation, but in the slight chance it does hopefully it will help.



It looked like one of these:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1480443317.jpg


EDIT: if the upstairs shower flows no water, hot or cold. I suspect your pressure regulator is shot.

Go to the hardware store and get a $10 hose bib pressure gauge and see what the pressure is. i bet it's under 10 psig.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1480443572.jpg

Are your supply pipes copper or galvanized. If they are galvanized, the problem will not get any better, just worse.

If they are copper do as the other posts suggest and flush out the pipes, if the pipes are galvanized, you will have to replace them before they burst.

The ago of your house is a good indicator as to the type of supply pipes you have.

The only other potential issue could be the water pipe entering the house. If it is lead, it is clogged and will need to be replaced.

Do you have decent pressure anywhere?

Well or city water?

Have you checked the screens at every fixture?

Shower flow ok if you unscrew the showerhead? (If not, probably crap in the cartridge/diverter)

Some very good questions have been asked, but we haven't heard a reply as yet and answers would certainly help narrow down the source of your problem. Maybe add a new post in which all of the questions posed are answered then we can more easily analyze your situation.

BTW, have you tried opening an outside hose bib to check the flow/pressure there (a crude version of sammyg2's suggestion)? Your outside faucets are not tied in with the water heater and if they flow well, you can assume your supply lines (to the house) are good. If the exterior faucets also are weak, then the entire plumbing of the house is suspect.

Do you have a water softener or any type of filtration?

Both sides of the tank?

Open your taps up and check the inlet and outlet pressures again.

You will always have line pressure on the outlet if the taps are all turned off, even a pinhole sized opening will read as full pressure.

I would tap on the side of the suspect pipes while the water is flowing. I would also check the dump valve on the tank (over-pressure relief valve) make sure that you get good flow from there, if you don't the problem is upstream.

And remove all the screens from your taps for now.

Pressure alone is meaningless. You can have great pressure and with a 1/8 pipe and not get the flow needed to take a shower. You need volume.

It might be time to break down and call a professional that know what to look for.

The problem must be downstream of the water heater since the relief valve has good flow.

Go to the hot water tap closest to the tank and make sure it also has poor flow.

There is probably a galvanized<--->copper pipe coupling on the output pipe of the water heater.

(Notice I didn't say "hot water heater" because I assume you don't have rooftop solar pre-heaters. Hah!)

These can go bad, and need to be replaced with a special one to prevent corrosion.
A buddy noticed mine was bad and replaced it. The old one was held together with rust with only a few threads left.
If you have one of those USB mini snake cameras you could check out the pipes from inside.


You also might want to turn off the main, drain a bit from the lowest point in the house, usually the basement tub sink, then pull the shower cartridge and blow it out again. There might be stuff floating around again. Water does that.

Any turning rubber gasket wants to be re-installed with a slathering of plumber's lube/silicone grease.

Glad you found the problem.

You have a water heater with a galvanized tank. Eventually, that tank will corrode and pieces will flake off. Those flakes, along with accumulated calcium deposits, generally fall to the bottom of the tank, but over the years, as cold water fills the tank causing turbulance, some will go into suspension and find their way to your faucets. When you flushed your tank you likely put much more into suspension than would ordinarily have happened and that simply plugged the faucets completely. Unless you flushed the tank by turning off the hot outlet and opened the bottom drain and the safety valve at the top, the debris went directly into you hot water lines.

LJ,
Can you please provide a brief listing of the steps to "flush" out a hot water tank? I have a 5 year old Sears 40gal tank. It is making knocking noises. Does flushing out a hot water tank really do any good? I can run a hose from the bottom of the tank out the front door - that's about 30 feet.
Thanks.

Well, I'm no expert but this is how I do it (but to be honest, haven't done it recently and my heater is waaay past it's life expectancy.)

1. Turn off the cold inlet and hot outlet. Turn the gas valve to OFF.

2. Connect hose to drain. Open drain petcock.

3. Flip up safety valve lever to allow air to enter tank. Alternately, you can disconnect the hot water flex hose from the tank.

4. Once all water has drained out, turn on the cold water and flush as much sediment from the bottom as possible. Flush is short intervals as you don't want to fill the tank too much beyond the bottom level. Look for clear water from the hose.

5. Close petcock and remove hose.

6. If you disconnected the hot water outlet, reconnect it, but be sure the safety valve is opened. Do not open the hot water outlet valve, yet.

7. Slowly, open the cold water valve and allow the water to fill the tank. Gradually open the valve until it's fully opened.

8. Listen for air escaping from the safety valve.

9. When water emerges from the safety valve, close it.

10. Let the heater sit for a period of time to allow settling of any sediment. Meanwhile, find the closest hot water faucet to the heater.

11. After wait period, open closest hot faucet, open the hot water valve at the heater, and monitor for escaping air. Close faucet when water flows freely.

12. Open gas valve and relight heater, if necessary.

Looks complicated, but it's not. Not a perfect method, but tends to minimize suspended debris.

^that is excellent.

If your water heater is inside the house, get it out to the garage or somewhere else. Mine was, and I re-piped and moved it outside. Water heaters usually fail catastrophically, they don't go "drip, drip".

Good point - unfortunately it will probably remain in the house. I should install a pan that drains under the house and not into the hall.

Thanks LJ - I'll give it a go and see what happens.