Whistling sound using shower?

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ndjur

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After a few leaky attempts, I finally got Hansgrohe iBox and Quattro diverter in place - leak free. I tested it by connecting garden hoses to all three shower outlets (instead of shower heads) and running them straight into the toilet drain pipe. The bathroom is on the second floor and when I walked down to check if there are any drainage leaks (new pipes as well), I could hear a really loud whistling sound which I thought was coming from the 4 year old Bredford White Difender gas operated hot water tanks. It was whistling only when I was testing hot shower line. I couldn't hear the whistling upstairs, so I think it is not caused by the new shower valves. Would you have any idea why this may happening?
Thanks a lot.
 

FullySprinklered

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If it sounds like "singing in the rain", it could be your brother in law. If it sounds like " old man river" it could be a burglar.
 

Jadnashua

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Using hoses on the head stubs means lots more flow than you'll have once they are installed. The Copper Institute's guidelines on maximum flow for hot water pipes is 5fps. One a 1/2" pipe, that amounts to about 4gpm, and doubles at 3/4" pipe. Depending on the pipe size, you may be exceeding that, and one of the reasons why they make that suggestion is because of flow noises, the other is internal pipe erosion. It may not be an issue once you're actual flow gets restricted via the showerhead(s) verses what amounts to essentially an open pipe. Make sure the valves around the WH are fully opened.
 

ndjur

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Thanks a lot Jim,

I did more testing to find out if this is in any way related to the new shower plumbing and it turns out the sound is only related to increased hot water flow (just like you suggested). It can be created by fully opening any three hot water taps in the house or one hot water tap + dishwasher. Nothing to do with the new shower. As hot water demand gets increased all of a sudden very loud whistling/squealing starts and it stops as soon as the flow decreases. I think this was not happening before, but I certainly may be wrong.
I looked at the valves around the hot water tank and they are all fully opened, except for the fully closed relief one, of course. The sound appears to be coming from the tank but who knows, it may be created elsewhere and just amplified in the tank.
I'll contact Bredford White to see if they have any idea.
 

WorthFlorida

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One of the heat traps could have debris in it causing turbulence of the water flow thus a whistling sound. On the hot water side the shut off valve could also be bad. Sometimes they are gate valves that seem to have a high failure rate after turning them for the first time in years. If you turned this valve to do your job, it may be partially open. I alway change these out with a Sharkbite 1/4 turn ball valve.

http://www.bradfordwhite.com/heat-traps
 
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ndjur

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Thank you all very much for your suggestions.

I sent email to Bradford White and will let you know what their response was. I also sent them a video of the sound, hoping it would help.
At the beginning of the video I have only one hot water tap fully open and as you can hear there is no sound from the tank. The sound starts when a second tap gets fully opened, a few seconds into the video. The sound in the video appears to be less noisy than it really is.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwD8uMuhJZ2RV3c2U1kwYU40RU0/view?usp=sharing
Again, thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it.
 

Jadnashua

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What's the scoop on that vacuum breaker on the cold side. Is that a Canada thing?
The plumbing code in the city where I live requires any WH to have both a tempering valve and a vacuum breaker installed...so, no, it's not a Canadian thing.
 
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