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And you notice this after someone starts to open the cold side taps ?
How many before the drop happens?
Air bound???? What happens if you lift the handle on the pressure relief valve?And you notice this after someone starts to open the cold side taps ?
How many before the drop happens?
No, the cold side has no affect on it at all, the pressure just suddenly drops. There is one thing, on rare occasions, when the hot is running, there is a loud banging noise then the pressure returns to normal.
Air bound???? What happens if you lift the handle on the pressure relief valve?And you notice this after someone starts to open the cold side taps ?
How many before the drop happens?
No, the cold side has no affect on it at all, the pressure just suddenly drops. There is one thing, on rare occasions, when the hot is running, there is a loud banging noise then the pressure returns to normal.
Do me a favor. Turn on a hot water tap and then take a fairly heavy tool, a hammer or crescent wrench and tap on the incoming water valve and the heat trap nipple. you may be able to loosen sediment or a lump of solder that has worked it's way through the pipe to a restriction.
Another thing would be to replace that gate valve with a ball valve. I've seen far too many valve stems break off, allowing the valve to be mostly closed when you think it's fully opened.
With the valve partially opened, pressure builds up in the tank and for a few seconds, you get good flow, but as soon as the pressure drops, the flow through the partially closed valve can't maintain your flow rate.
Replacing the water heater won't fix a flow restriction up stream of the WH.
OH well. A shot in the dark occasionally hits the target.Air bound???? What happens if you lift the handle on the pressure relief valve?No, the cold side has no affect on it at all, the pressure just suddenly drops. There is one thing, on rare occasions, when the hot is running, there is a loud banging noise then the pressure returns to normal.
Water comes out.
Shit!! Duh!! It just occurred to me the issue could be with the hot feed to the washer, the one valve I haven't played with and when in use will "hammer" when the flow to the washer stops. It's just a guess, but at this point anything is worth a try.
I don't know how hard the water is there, but heat traps are usually galvanized steel and can pluf up with rust and sediment over time. I thing you said that the tank is relatively new? the damned trap should last longer than a few years.
If you have a ball valve at hand, I'd suggest cutting the copper ahead of the valve and replacing everything down stream of it, including the heat trap. You might even consider using flexible tubing from the valve to the tank. It makes replacing the tank a snap in the future.
Can you solder?I took a wrench and "smacked" around the feed valve, inlet joint and the out feed. Pressure is back to normal however I will be replacing the gate with the ball anyway. I need to replace the mains, one above the meter and one below on a one inch line, how hard is that? It's at least $500 to have a plumber do it.
Can you solder?I took a wrench and "smacked" around the feed valve, inlet joint and the out feed. Pressure is back to normal however I will be replacing the gate with the ball anyway. I need to replace the mains, one above the meter and one below on a one inch line, how hard is that? It's at least $500 to have a plumber do it.
The piping and meter should be supported as you fit the fluxed pieces together. Don't rely on solder as a support. Can you install something like bell hangersCan you solder?I took a wrench and "smacked" around the feed valve, inlet joint and the out feed. Pressure is back to normal however I will be replacing the gate with the ball anyway. I need to replace the mains, one above the meter and one below on a one inch line, how hard is that? It's at least $500 to have a plumber do it.
Who? Me? Why would I want to solder? I've only done it off and on for decades.......
The issue isn't soldering, specifically, it's soldering with a somewhat heavy section of piping and a meter attached to it and no help to hold it in place otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to tackle the main feeds.
Why you want to mess with the meter?