Lower Hot Water Pressure w/NEW HW Heater!!

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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?