Leaking valve - new water tank

[Pimbley]

I plumbed in my American Standard valve with no problems. No water leaking from the shower end. Dy for about a month (while I slowly drywalled).

Then I had my water tank replaced. Now I have an intermitted leak from the shower end. It's not consistent. Is it based on erratic pressure from the new tank? Or did the plumbers get crud in the pipes? If the latter I'd expect to see the leak drip with some consistency.

It's not a big deal because it would only leak into the shower from the shower head. Not sure I want to take the valve apart and clean for this.

Is it hard to clean a valve. Would this even help?

Thx!

[cwhyu2]

Try taking the shower head off and turn it on full blast to flush out any
debris that may have got into pipes from new w/h installation.
If that dosnt work tou may have take the faucet apart.

[jadnashua]

Is the new WH larger than the old one? Do you have the thermostat higher? When you heat water, it expands. Your older tank may have been smaller or colder. The expanding water needs to go somewhere. Depending on the components you have in the house, if you have a check valve or pressure reduction valve in the house, instead of expanding back into the water supply, it tries to expand into the house's piping. Depending on the valves and configuration in the house, that valve may be the weak point and when the water is expanding, it leaks there. A common location is the T&P valve on the WH. If you have an expansion tank to help prevent this from happening, it could be shot, or the plumber may have left the isolation valve closed! You may or may not need one. Pick up an inexpensive water pressure gauge at one of the big box stores ($10 or so), and screw it onto say a hose bib or buy adapters to connect it to a faucet somewhere and monitor the pressure after taking a shower. This uses up the hot water, replacing it with cold...then, as it heats up, it expands. If the pressure rises significantly, you either need to replace or add an expansion tank. If it doesn't, it's something else. Knowing what your pressure is is useful. Also, even if you don't have a check vavle somewhere, your town pressure may be too high at certain times of the day and you need a prv which would also need an expansion tank.

[Pimbley]

Thx all.

I flushed the valve and it has been dry for about 4 hours. But, was intermittent before then so tbd.

Given intermittent it may be pressure or temp related. WH is same size but temp may well be higher. I'll turn temp down and see. Also will play with pressure valve.

Living and learning!

Pimbley

[Gary Swart]

If you have a pressure regulator valve, you should have an expansion tank also. If you don't, then that would be a next step. Don't "play" with the pressure regulator with a pressure gauge. You need a gauge to set the pressure in the expansion tank to equal the pressure gauge setting anyway.