mikeconte
New Member
OK, i need a little advice. A friend recently had some plumbing problems and I offered to help. She has a 3 story townhouse with a gas-fired AO Smith hot water heater that is about 9 years old. Recently, the TPS valve began to leak - it would gush quite a bit of water outside. So i replaced it with a new one.
At the same time, I checked the pressure in the expansion tank, and water came out of the valve - clearly the bladder had broken. So i replaced the old 5gal one with a 12gal new one and pressurized it to 60 PSI before refilling the tank.
Ever since then, hot water comes out the cold taps, typically after a shower. And it is HOT and takes several minutes to flush out before cold will come out. All the taps show this.
Here is what else i have done:
> She has two single handle shower with Moen posi-temp valves; i replaced the cartidges in each with new ones. One was originally installed backwards (hot and cold reversed) and also seemed to be broken - a few loose parts were rattling around. In either case, I have replaced both.
> Her input pressure from the city was about 80psi measered at a cold water hose bib, which seemed high, so i reduced this to 60.
> I dropped the HW temp from 150 to about 130 to be a little safer and save some money.
> I installed a check-valve on the cold water feed to the HW heater, in case it was backing the water into the cold line. When i feel this pipe with my hands, it does not seem hot once i get a foot or so away from the tank and the valve.
Here's what else i have tested:
> I turned off the HW valve on the feed to her single handle kitchen sink (Price Pfister) and the HW feed to her washer and the problems still occurs - eg, run all the hot out of the cold lines, run some hot, wait a bit, and the problem is back. All the rest of the faucets in the home are two-handled and mix in the spout, so i don't think there is a way hot could be leaking to the cold via those.
> I felt each cold feeder to the faucets and can't find one that is especially hot which might indicate where the hot water is crossing over.
> I turned off the hot water output at the HW heater and ran each faucet's (and shower's) hot water to see if any cold was leaking thru - none was.
There are no accessible cut offs to the two showers, so as i noted, i have replaced both catridges with no effect. She has a kitchenaid dishwasher but that (i believe) has just one water feed. She has a jetted tub with a two-handled tub spout - could there be a problem with it? I can't find any shutoff valves for it in any case. She has no water softener. She has a fridge with an icemaker but this should have just a cold water feed.
This problem did not used to occur. I can believe that the expansion tank failed and that cause the TPS to leak and perhaps broke an internal valve, but i have replace or turned off everyone i can get to and the problem is still there.
Any advice??
Thanks!
Mike
At the same time, I checked the pressure in the expansion tank, and water came out of the valve - clearly the bladder had broken. So i replaced the old 5gal one with a 12gal new one and pressurized it to 60 PSI before refilling the tank.
Ever since then, hot water comes out the cold taps, typically after a shower. And it is HOT and takes several minutes to flush out before cold will come out. All the taps show this.
Here is what else i have done:
> She has two single handle shower with Moen posi-temp valves; i replaced the cartidges in each with new ones. One was originally installed backwards (hot and cold reversed) and also seemed to be broken - a few loose parts were rattling around. In either case, I have replaced both.
> Her input pressure from the city was about 80psi measered at a cold water hose bib, which seemed high, so i reduced this to 60.
> I dropped the HW temp from 150 to about 130 to be a little safer and save some money.
> I installed a check-valve on the cold water feed to the HW heater, in case it was backing the water into the cold line. When i feel this pipe with my hands, it does not seem hot once i get a foot or so away from the tank and the valve.
Here's what else i have tested:
> I turned off the HW valve on the feed to her single handle kitchen sink (Price Pfister) and the HW feed to her washer and the problems still occurs - eg, run all the hot out of the cold lines, run some hot, wait a bit, and the problem is back. All the rest of the faucets in the home are two-handled and mix in the spout, so i don't think there is a way hot could be leaking to the cold via those.
> I felt each cold feeder to the faucets and can't find one that is especially hot which might indicate where the hot water is crossing over.
> I turned off the hot water output at the HW heater and ran each faucet's (and shower's) hot water to see if any cold was leaking thru - none was.
There are no accessible cut offs to the two showers, so as i noted, i have replaced both catridges with no effect. She has a kitchenaid dishwasher but that (i believe) has just one water feed. She has a jetted tub with a two-handled tub spout - could there be a problem with it? I can't find any shutoff valves for it in any case. She has no water softener. She has a fridge with an icemaker but this should have just a cold water feed.
This problem did not used to occur. I can believe that the expansion tank failed and that cause the TPS to leak and perhaps broke an internal valve, but i have replace or turned off everyone i can get to and the problem is still there.
Any advice??
Thanks!
Mike