Mike_J
New Member
I have an oil burner with tankless hot water and a supplemental water heater tank. Recently I started having air spluttering and sometimes violently spitting from all hot water taps in the house. This happened once before due to a bad well pump, but in that case it was from both hot and cold taps.
I tried draining all lines then refilling with taps open until spluttering stopped--seemed to work but by next morning air was back. I turned off the water heater and closed the inlet and outlet valves to isolate it from the system and I'm still getting some spluttering.
Any advice appreciated.
UPDATE: Weird. I was poking around and noticed the inlet to my heating system was closed (not sure who did that or why) and the pressure in the heating system was really low. Related? Seems unlikely because it's only connected to house water via the inlet valve which is on the cold side.
UPDATE #2: I may have solved it--need a day or two to make sure. A water heater element was dead--corroded right through the copper. Replaced both elements with the nice ultra low-density ones. I think the sputtering after I isolated the hot water heater was just residual--time will tell. Can a bad element cause air in the lines?
I tried draining all lines then refilling with taps open until spluttering stopped--seemed to work but by next morning air was back. I turned off the water heater and closed the inlet and outlet valves to isolate it from the system and I'm still getting some spluttering.
Any advice appreciated.
UPDATE: Weird. I was poking around and noticed the inlet to my heating system was closed (not sure who did that or why) and the pressure in the heating system was really low. Related? Seems unlikely because it's only connected to house water via the inlet valve which is on the cold side.
UPDATE #2: I may have solved it--need a day or two to make sure. A water heater element was dead--corroded right through the copper. Replaced both elements with the nice ultra low-density ones. I think the sputtering after I isolated the hot water heater was just residual--time will tell. Can a bad element cause air in the lines?
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