Why Now Water Hammer?

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tmy23

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Greetings and thanks in advance for any help. So replaced clothes washer about 18 months ago. Ran fine, suddenly in the last month, getting water hammer. It's a high efficiency machine and one day while it was hammering, I grabbed the flexible supply hose and could feel it jolting, presumably the machine feeds water in short bursts...So I am happy to put 2 arresters on, but when something like this happens I wonder "what changed?".....I can't think of anything that changed in my plumbing...so am concerned the problem is the machine and that the arresters might mask the problem? So the question...can water hammer "just start?
thanks!!1
 

Reach4

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If your plumbing is older, your water hammer arrestors may be vertical capped pipes.

If so, draining your water for a while may get air back in there. Maybe not. Otherwise just put the newer water hammer arrestors in line. They have ones that just go in series with your washer hoses. The orientation is not important. Your new washer probably rinses with all cold, so you could start with the one if you are trying to economize.

Primitive-Water-hammer-arrestors.jpg
 

Jadnashua

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Over time, that jolting of the water lines might have moved the pipe in the wall enough so that it is now hitting on something. ANother reason it might have just started is if your incoming water pressure changed...the higher the pressure, the more inertia the water has when it stops. Water utilities can do this as they add lines, change pumps, or some other maintenance requires higher pressure to serve everyone. This is one reason why in some places, they require a PRV and an expansion tank be installed, to prevent changes in the supply from becoming an issue in their customers buildings.

FWIW, I put the arresters at the WM, not at the shutoffs. They work best the closer they are to the valve that is causing the problem.
 

Smooky

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Before adding the arresters make sure that both valves are fully open. Open them fully and see if that fixes your problem.
 
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