Hello,
I'm having an issue with warm water being delivered to a cold water fixture. Our water heater is in the basement. When I turn on the cold sink faucet in the 2nd floor bathroom, we get about 5 seconds of cold water, followed by about 15 seconds of warm water (85 degrees) and then we get cold water again (50 degrees). I suspect it could be hot water from the water heater backfilling into our cold supply lines.
Here are some notes and things I've investigated:
Thanks!
I'm having an issue with warm water being delivered to a cold water fixture. Our water heater is in the basement. When I turn on the cold sink faucet in the 2nd floor bathroom, we get about 5 seconds of cold water, followed by about 15 seconds of warm water (85 degrees) and then we get cold water again (50 degrees). I suspect it could be hot water from the water heater backfilling into our cold supply lines.
Here are some notes and things I've investigated:
- The cold water supply lines in the basement leading up to the water heater are warm to the touch. The main lines are copper and it's less evident there, but the supply lines that tee off the main to lead to the 2nd floor supply are PEX - you can feel the heat more clearly when touching the PEX.
- I've insulated the pipes around where hot and cold supply lines cross to rule out the hot water pipes heating the cold. This didn't solve the problem.
- We've had this same plumbing setup for the last 14 years and this issue only started appearing in the last 6 months.
- This issue was present during the summer when we don't use heat (forced air), so it's not related to something like pipes being near a heat vent.
- I can't really replicate this situation in other fixtures in the house, perhaps because the other cold water supply lines are farther down the line from the water heater. It seems to be isolated to the 2nd floor bathroom, whose supply lines are closest to the water heater.
- The other cold water supply lines in the 2nd floor bathroom seem impacted as well (I measured water at 72 degrees from a sample of the toilet tank). So that rule out an issue with the sink fixture.
Thanks!