We live in the City of Chicago. We have copper throughout the house. Which is very, very old - 1894.
3 nights ago we discovered the joy of lots of water streaming out from underneath our 8 year old AO Smith 50 Gallon power vented WH. No we've never had flooding, and no, it was not sitting directly on the floor. Just crappy product.
We proceeded to attach a hose to the bottom and ran it to the sump pump, turned off the gas, turned off the draft inducer and shut off the wh in-valve. 4 hours later the water was still running out of it. I assumed the valve was bad. It continued to drain all night long as I slept on the floor by it in case the sump pump went bad and I would need to start bucketing.
The next morning our first tech showed up and said the WH had rusted through and we would have to pay $2,000 for a new one. He did offer the suggestion to turn off the water main (duh) to stop the strain on the sump pump, which we did.
After a short period, the wh draining stopped. Out of curiosity with an empty tank, I turned the water main back on and listened to the wh. I could hear water flowing in from the out pipe. When I turned on the in valve, I could hear two streams of water flowing in. When I turned the valve off, back to one stream.
We left the water main off for the rest of the day waiting for a new plumber to install a new tank the following day ($1350).
The new tank was installed (had an issue with the polarity of the jack but that got resolved), and they said we should have hot water within an hour or two. They also confirmed the in-valve was good, and that we must have a cross-over somewhere that caused the continous back flow.
4 hours later, there was only a brief time of luke warm water and then back to freezing cold. I watched as the WH ran through its cycles, burners lit. The base of the water heater was hot as were the copper pipes leaving the water heater - very hot.
24 hours later, we still do not have continuous hot water. Here's the status at each faucet:
2nd floor bath - 15 seconds of hot, then luke warm, then freezing cold
2nd floor shower - same
1st floor kitchen - 15 seconds of luke warm, then freezing cold
1st floor bath - 15 seconds of luke warm, then freezing cold
basement utility sink - freezing cold
I have traced the hot water pipes from the wh to the basement utility sink. They are hot/warm up to a point where the pipe is joined by a smaller pipe from above. After that point the pipe is cold.
For the 7 years we've lived here, we always had a "feature" whereby if someone on the 2nd floor was taking a shower, the hot water faucets downstairs ran ice cold.
My assumption through all of this is that the cross-over back pressure created when I drained the old tank is preventing the flow of hot water up stream. Is it possible some valve preventing the cross-over was broken/stuck open in the process of draining the old water heater? Can anyone point to resources/pictures that explain cross-over's and the most likely locations of them and any valves involved? Are they a standard part of a system?
I should also mention that during this process, I discovered the cold water valve in the 2nd floor bathroom sink was turned off. This is strange, because both hot and cold work from that faucet. I was psyched to believe I found the cross over, but opening it up has had no impact on anything.
3 nights ago we discovered the joy of lots of water streaming out from underneath our 8 year old AO Smith 50 Gallon power vented WH. No we've never had flooding, and no, it was not sitting directly on the floor. Just crappy product.
We proceeded to attach a hose to the bottom and ran it to the sump pump, turned off the gas, turned off the draft inducer and shut off the wh in-valve. 4 hours later the water was still running out of it. I assumed the valve was bad. It continued to drain all night long as I slept on the floor by it in case the sump pump went bad and I would need to start bucketing.
The next morning our first tech showed up and said the WH had rusted through and we would have to pay $2,000 for a new one. He did offer the suggestion to turn off the water main (duh) to stop the strain on the sump pump, which we did.
After a short period, the wh draining stopped. Out of curiosity with an empty tank, I turned the water main back on and listened to the wh. I could hear water flowing in from the out pipe. When I turned on the in valve, I could hear two streams of water flowing in. When I turned the valve off, back to one stream.
We left the water main off for the rest of the day waiting for a new plumber to install a new tank the following day ($1350).
The new tank was installed (had an issue with the polarity of the jack but that got resolved), and they said we should have hot water within an hour or two. They also confirmed the in-valve was good, and that we must have a cross-over somewhere that caused the continous back flow.
4 hours later, there was only a brief time of luke warm water and then back to freezing cold. I watched as the WH ran through its cycles, burners lit. The base of the water heater was hot as were the copper pipes leaving the water heater - very hot.
24 hours later, we still do not have continuous hot water. Here's the status at each faucet:
2nd floor bath - 15 seconds of hot, then luke warm, then freezing cold
2nd floor shower - same
1st floor kitchen - 15 seconds of luke warm, then freezing cold
1st floor bath - 15 seconds of luke warm, then freezing cold
basement utility sink - freezing cold
I have traced the hot water pipes from the wh to the basement utility sink. They are hot/warm up to a point where the pipe is joined by a smaller pipe from above. After that point the pipe is cold.
For the 7 years we've lived here, we always had a "feature" whereby if someone on the 2nd floor was taking a shower, the hot water faucets downstairs ran ice cold.
My assumption through all of this is that the cross-over back pressure created when I drained the old tank is preventing the flow of hot water up stream. Is it possible some valve preventing the cross-over was broken/stuck open in the process of draining the old water heater? Can anyone point to resources/pictures that explain cross-over's and the most likely locations of them and any valves involved? Are they a standard part of a system?
I should also mention that during this process, I discovered the cold water valve in the 2nd floor bathroom sink was turned off. This is strange, because both hot and cold work from that faucet. I was psyched to believe I found the cross over, but opening it up has had no impact on anything.
Last edited:
