Ceramic ball

[swp]

So my hot water on all lines all of a sudden is very low. I turned everything off and opened the hot line and cold line to check. First of all my hot water supply is coming out of the part of the water heater that says cold, and the cold water in from the street is going into the hot. That sounds wrong.

First after turning everything off I opened my hot tap in my laundry room and shut off the cold to the water heater. I tried to drain the water heater throuh the drain line. This was slow and while I was waiting I took off the cold water line, in doing so I found this cermic ball with a point. I pulled it out and connected the line again and turned on the cold, and everything is back to normal. Before resuming normal operation though I want to know if anyone knows what this is and if its needed or dangerous to operate without it?

 

[WorthFlorida]

Probably from the heat trap at the top of the water heater. If this is from the cold inlet, the fill tube could have broken off. If it did you'll notice less hot water since the cold water is entering th etop of the heater next to the hot side outlet. The fill tube brings the cold water to the bottom of the tank. Depending on age it may be time to replace the water heater but these can be bought and replaced. They minimize heated water from traveling up the pipes when no water is running. No danger but a larger utility bill.

.

.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[swp]

Thanks for the reply, I am actually installing a on-demand hot water heater now and re-running the potable plumbing since I am finishing up the basement and adding a bath. So I won't be running the old one for much longer. Luck that this problem started a day before I was starting to redesign and install the new water heater. Just wanted to see if I could run it a couple more days instead of taking off work to finish the install.

 

[Jadnashua]

On some models, you can move the dip tube, so that would let you swap which port was cold versus hot. If you do that, assuming you also have heat traps, you'd need to position them properly, too. That might make it easier to route the plumbing in/out of the unit. Normally, that's not an issue.

The dip tube directs the incoming cold water towards the bottom of the tank to maximize the undisturbed hot at the top of the tank.

If the heat traps are reversed, that can significantly slow or stop the water flow in/out of the WH.