Hello,
I have been searching for an hour now and still have a few questions.
I have a 4 year old Ranch house, I have over the last 2 months or so developed an increasing water hammer problem with mainly the toilets, but a mild hammer with the ice makers. I have made it better but it is not fixed.
I have 60' ranch, water comes in one end and my tankless heater is on the opposite end, vented out the wall, with a few bends to the main line.
There is a Pressure Reducing Valve on the line where the water comes in the house.
Pressure is at 59 pounds, tried to move the pressure down some and the hammer does not go away.
Pressure is at 52 pounds when the toilet runs, then when the toilet stops I can see guage go flucuate a little and then it rests on 59 again. It does not go over 59 when it spikes.
Pressure went to 56 when icemaker fills.
I have 3/4 main lines with 1/2 feeder lines to the fixtures. No arrestors or air chambers were installed with the house.
I have a aquastar tankless heater with a hot water return loop, loop has a 4 gallon electric heater and a pump in line, a CHECK valve is also on the leg of the loop so the loop water does not back feed into the main heater.
I have screwed all the lines tight to the rafters, nothing is loose.
I have tried to drain the system and all, this seems to help for a day, then it is back to normal.
The hammer stopped when I shut off the supply to the main water heater?
The hammer seems to be coming from the water heater...sometimes....but that might be a coinsidense and not the problem....
Last week, in a feable attempt to fix my problem, I put on 2 water arrestors on the hot and cold lines of the washing machine, since it was easy to screw on and 2 arrestors on the main water line, one on each end of the house, which was a mistake I guess. It helped the hammer some but it is not fixed.
I have NO expansion tanks on the system. I have seen the pressure up to 80, I assume that it could be caused by thermal expansion, on my closed system, as I just read about on this site, but I dont think this is the source of the hammer since I can recreate the hammer repeatedly when the pressure is at 59.
So...how do I fix this mess?
Does the Pressure Reducing valve seem to be working as expected, should the pressure stay constant regardless if a fixture is on? Can this valve cause hammering?
I assume I should add some arrestors closer to the toilets and maybe replace the tank fill valves with quiet ones?
I have since read about arrestors in more detail and the opinion is to put the arrestor as close to the problem valve as possible, is that the opinion of this board?
What about an expansion tank? I assume I need one, but for a tankless heater? Is it important to mount the tee on a Horizontal line and the have the tank above it? (my space is somewhat limited under the floor...) I assume this will help my hammering problem some also?
Sorry for all the questions.
thanks for all your help.
Kevin
e-mail - haeffkr at charter dot net
I have been searching for an hour now and still have a few questions.
I have a 4 year old Ranch house, I have over the last 2 months or so developed an increasing water hammer problem with mainly the toilets, but a mild hammer with the ice makers. I have made it better but it is not fixed.
I have 60' ranch, water comes in one end and my tankless heater is on the opposite end, vented out the wall, with a few bends to the main line.
There is a Pressure Reducing Valve on the line where the water comes in the house.
Pressure is at 59 pounds, tried to move the pressure down some and the hammer does not go away.
Pressure is at 52 pounds when the toilet runs, then when the toilet stops I can see guage go flucuate a little and then it rests on 59 again. It does not go over 59 when it spikes.
Pressure went to 56 when icemaker fills.
I have 3/4 main lines with 1/2 feeder lines to the fixtures. No arrestors or air chambers were installed with the house.
I have a aquastar tankless heater with a hot water return loop, loop has a 4 gallon electric heater and a pump in line, a CHECK valve is also on the leg of the loop so the loop water does not back feed into the main heater.
I have screwed all the lines tight to the rafters, nothing is loose.
I have tried to drain the system and all, this seems to help for a day, then it is back to normal.
The hammer stopped when I shut off the supply to the main water heater?
The hammer seems to be coming from the water heater...sometimes....but that might be a coinsidense and not the problem....
Last week, in a feable attempt to fix my problem, I put on 2 water arrestors on the hot and cold lines of the washing machine, since it was easy to screw on and 2 arrestors on the main water line, one on each end of the house, which was a mistake I guess. It helped the hammer some but it is not fixed.
I have NO expansion tanks on the system. I have seen the pressure up to 80, I assume that it could be caused by thermal expansion, on my closed system, as I just read about on this site, but I dont think this is the source of the hammer since I can recreate the hammer repeatedly when the pressure is at 59.
So...how do I fix this mess?
Does the Pressure Reducing valve seem to be working as expected, should the pressure stay constant regardless if a fixture is on? Can this valve cause hammering?
I assume I should add some arrestors closer to the toilets and maybe replace the tank fill valves with quiet ones?
I have since read about arrestors in more detail and the opinion is to put the arrestor as close to the problem valve as possible, is that the opinion of this board?
What about an expansion tank? I assume I need one, but for a tankless heater? Is it important to mount the tee on a Horizontal line and the have the tank above it? (my space is somewhat limited under the floor...) I assume this will help my hammering problem some also?
Sorry for all the questions.
thanks for all your help.
Kevin
e-mail - haeffkr at charter dot net