Luke415
New Member
Hello, I am hoping an experienced plumber can help me!!! I turned off my water main and cold water inlet shutoff valve to my hot water heater so that I could add a T to an existing hot water line to plumb a utility sink in my basement. After finishing, I opened the main and shutoff valve, opened all faucets in the house to bleed the air out, and now there is just a trickle of water coming out. I also opened all of the cold faucets in the house and it seemed to add a bit of pressure to the hot water momentarily, but after about 30 seconds it would go back to a trickle. The weird thing is that the copper pipe that is closest to the hot water outlet is totally cold when flowing (which makes no sense because the tank was on the whole time and should stay hot for hours even if it was not on. FYI the water coming out of the drain valve is still hot). It almost seems like the cold water was bypassing the hot water heater all together. Also, the pipe on the cold inlet side was warm. What in the world...?!? There is also a 'water heater safety tank' installed. Could this be affecting the pressure somehow?! See attached pics. Thank you anyone for your feedback!!