Lower Hot Water Pressure w/NEW HW Heater!!

[Deandome]

We had the dreaded disintegrated intake tube problem, so we replaced the gas HW heater about 4 weeks ago...flushed & cleaned every outlet & cartridge (faucets/tubs/showers) and things were great. I even removed two bath cartridges to get maximum, right-outta-the-pipe pressure for the flushing. We have copper plumbing, BTW.

The debris stopped coming out, the pressure was great (equal to cold) and I thought we were all set.

Well now, we're getting significantly less HW pressure, and that's everywhere, so it's not a point-of-use problem, it's the system. I'd guess it's about a 25% less pressure than the cold...in Moen-faucet-speak, the temp-dial needs to be at about 10 o'clock positiion for a nice warm instead of a straight-up 12 o'clock.

What do you think this could be? Perhaps a big chunk of intake tube particles (that had stayed put during the flush) shifted & is now blocking an 'aorta'?? What should I do...maybe another gush-flush (I take the pressure balance cartridgeout of a Grohe tub faucet & then open the cutoff, giving max. HW flow)? Should I maybe first turn up the heater to the max temp, thinking super-hot water might unclog better than normal? SOMETHING ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT??

Inquiring minds want to know...and will greatly appreciate your input :)

Dean

[Randyj]

With my luck that would just let it go on down to a tighter spot and make it worse. Any way to back flush?

[Deandome]

I thought about that....I have no idea HOW, though.

Not so much the 'input'...I'd just connect the hot & cold connections w/a valve at 1-2 sinks. But I don't have a lotta room to 'play' from the top of the WH/dielectric joint & the ceiling, so finding a way to collect the back-spewage would be tricky.

I certainly wouldn't want to spew back into the heater itself & then drain it...that would get ugly, as the inlet-tube particles FLOAT & i do NOT want to risk introducing particles into my new heater ('specially with the internal heat-saver baffles...they'd never come out!)!!

What I think I'll do is crank up the temp & try that high-pressure, removethe PB cartridge bathtub flush again. The tube fragments are VERY delicate..they practically turn to powder when you rub them in your fingers...so hopefully heat & turbulence will break up any large pieces/globs of little pieces.

[Laneman]

Read my post about my new WH having restrictor discs in the pipe holes at top of tank. Could be the problem.

[Cass]

Has the pressure been lower from the start or did it suddenly happen?

[plumber1]

Next time I would just replace the dip tube ( incoming cold water tube ) and drain the heater.

[Deandome]

After the install, the pressure was evenly balanced, or at least a lot more balanced than it is now.

I'll try a flush this weekend & see what happens. I don't think I'll take out the inserts yet, as again, things were fine at first. But I also don't want to mess w/my dielectric joints too much cuz that's what triggered the problems w/the old one (though I know now the dip tube was already starting to particle-ize).

There was an increase of brown crud oozing out, so I replaced both joints, and in doing so, I cracked one of the plastic 'insulators' on the new joint. I guessed that that wouldn't have been a big problem, as it was still serving it's function of creating a break in the metallic connection (was I right?). I was more careful about not overtightening them on the new install.

I tried a drain/flush on the old one, but I was told I'd never get rid of all the debris, and I'm sure the anode was nasty....

SPEAKING OF ANODES...now that I know they exist & what they do, will I want to automatically replace it every 2-4 years or so? Will that extend the lifespan of the heater?