Auntie Jojo
New Member
Hi, Folks:
Here's a Saturday Night Mystery for you all:
Four years ago, there was a functioning (but not well constructed and unacceptable for aesthetic reasons) shower, toilet, and sink in a small bathroom in the basement of the house I bought. The water pressure was pretty awesome, actually, since it was only about 20 feet from the water heater and main cold supply into the house.
Two years ago, I discovered that the shower had not been installed properly and had rotted through to the studs. I nuked it. I ripped out the ugly, tiny stall and capped off the 1/2-inch copper supply to that shower pending further energy to do more.
A year later, I decided the ceiling was too low for a shower stall, so I got a nice clawfoot tub from my dad, and, going off the original supply lines for the shower, the 1/2" copper that I'd just capped off, I put 1/2" PEX in to supply the new bathtub, which is the same distance away from the original supply site that the shower was, though the shower was just one ancient temperature/mixer valve; this is THREE fixtures, really: hand shower, tub, and overhead shower coming out of the ceiling. I put in a Delta Multichoice valve and a matching diverter so I could have a shower and a hand shower, and I have a separate tub filler that branches on its own branch of hot/cold lines (not through the valve, though they have the same source). They don't leak yet, though I haven't put in the trim and closed up the walls, of course. I just put in the last of the plumbing, the stub-outs, and the valves two weeks ago.
Then last weekend--after houseguests and mountains of laundry and dishes: I noticed last Sunday that I wasn't getting very hot water in the main bathroom upstairs, directly above the new basement bathroom. Pressure was fine--temperature not.
I assumed it was a water heater problem, but the water heater (besides being absent a functioning cold water shutoff, I found), was not the problem. It was weird--all of a sudden, after Thanksgiving, the water in the sink and shower upstairs would never get truly hot. The water pressure seemed to be the same to me. The kitchen, which branches north off the water heater, did get fairly hot, but the laundry room and all the other south-branching fittings just never really heated up.
Then I got a brilliant idea--I decided to "cap off" the new PEX plumbing I'd done very near the original points. I just cut the tubing and installed Sharkbite clamped ball valves in line with the hot and cold. And I turned them OFF. And voila--I get hotter water upstairs and in the laundry room. For a week I've had lukewarm showers and baths, and the water in the bathtub directly upstairs (a branch off the hot downstairs) has been running warm, cool, warm, cool, cooler...that went away directly after closing off those two lines to the tub/shower valves.
I realize this is probably some sort of water flow/pressure/vacuum problem I've caused. But that kind of thing is a bit beyond my knowledge base, and besides--if this problem never occurred when the original sink/toilet/shower were installed, why now? All the fixtures are capped off tight and not even being used, and I never, ever do two water tasks at once.
What is going on here? Any advice offered will be very much appreciated. This is my first foray into supply plumbing--in the past I've only done DWV and that has gone fine, so I decided to graduate.
Could it have to do with the fact that the mixing valve and diverter in the new shower downstairs are capped off temporarily pending wall installation? When they are being flushed and used and air/water are passing through, will the problem go away?
Another hint: The hot water supply out of the heater starts out at 3/4" but quickly reduces to 1/2", and a laundry sink, the washer, the new sink, and the new shower/tub/hand shower trio all run off it; it also branches upstairs to serve the upstairs sink and shower/tub. Just not enough volume?
What do you all think? I'm all ears.
And thank you.
Jojo
Here's a Saturday Night Mystery for you all:
Four years ago, there was a functioning (but not well constructed and unacceptable for aesthetic reasons) shower, toilet, and sink in a small bathroom in the basement of the house I bought. The water pressure was pretty awesome, actually, since it was only about 20 feet from the water heater and main cold supply into the house.
Two years ago, I discovered that the shower had not been installed properly and had rotted through to the studs. I nuked it. I ripped out the ugly, tiny stall and capped off the 1/2-inch copper supply to that shower pending further energy to do more.
A year later, I decided the ceiling was too low for a shower stall, so I got a nice clawfoot tub from my dad, and, going off the original supply lines for the shower, the 1/2" copper that I'd just capped off, I put 1/2" PEX in to supply the new bathtub, which is the same distance away from the original supply site that the shower was, though the shower was just one ancient temperature/mixer valve; this is THREE fixtures, really: hand shower, tub, and overhead shower coming out of the ceiling. I put in a Delta Multichoice valve and a matching diverter so I could have a shower and a hand shower, and I have a separate tub filler that branches on its own branch of hot/cold lines (not through the valve, though they have the same source). They don't leak yet, though I haven't put in the trim and closed up the walls, of course. I just put in the last of the plumbing, the stub-outs, and the valves two weeks ago.
Then last weekend--after houseguests and mountains of laundry and dishes: I noticed last Sunday that I wasn't getting very hot water in the main bathroom upstairs, directly above the new basement bathroom. Pressure was fine--temperature not.
I assumed it was a water heater problem, but the water heater (besides being absent a functioning cold water shutoff, I found), was not the problem. It was weird--all of a sudden, after Thanksgiving, the water in the sink and shower upstairs would never get truly hot. The water pressure seemed to be the same to me. The kitchen, which branches north off the water heater, did get fairly hot, but the laundry room and all the other south-branching fittings just never really heated up.
Then I got a brilliant idea--I decided to "cap off" the new PEX plumbing I'd done very near the original points. I just cut the tubing and installed Sharkbite clamped ball valves in line with the hot and cold. And I turned them OFF. And voila--I get hotter water upstairs and in the laundry room. For a week I've had lukewarm showers and baths, and the water in the bathtub directly upstairs (a branch off the hot downstairs) has been running warm, cool, warm, cool, cooler...that went away directly after closing off those two lines to the tub/shower valves.
I realize this is probably some sort of water flow/pressure/vacuum problem I've caused. But that kind of thing is a bit beyond my knowledge base, and besides--if this problem never occurred when the original sink/toilet/shower were installed, why now? All the fixtures are capped off tight and not even being used, and I never, ever do two water tasks at once.
What is going on here? Any advice offered will be very much appreciated. This is my first foray into supply plumbing--in the past I've only done DWV and that has gone fine, so I decided to graduate.
Could it have to do with the fact that the mixing valve and diverter in the new shower downstairs are capped off temporarily pending wall installation? When they are being flushed and used and air/water are passing through, will the problem go away?
Another hint: The hot water supply out of the heater starts out at 3/4" but quickly reduces to 1/2", and a laundry sink, the washer, the new sink, and the new shower/tub/hand shower trio all run off it; it also branches upstairs to serve the upstairs sink and shower/tub. Just not enough volume?
What do you all think? I'm all ears.
And thank you.
Jojo
