I have a question for you plumbers out there. I woke up one morning to find that the lower heating element in my water heater had pretty much rusted out of the side of the tank an was starting to run water down the side of the heater. It was the original one that was installed when the house was built. It was about 15 years old. Well since I am pretty proficient in sweating copper and soldering i figured this would be no big deal.
I purchased a new water heater with similar dimensions as the old one, the new one was high efficiency with digital controls. I also decided to replace the expansion tank as my system already had one and they are cheap so i said what the hell it cant hurt. So i shut the water off using the screw in type shutoff valve that comes out of the concrete slab next to the old water heater. Was a little hard to spin at 1st but i dont think it has ever been turned off before. I then opened the faucets to release the pressure in the lines. Once i did this I realized that no matter how hard i tried to shut that valve the faucet closest to the water main would not stop water running through it...it was a slow drip not quite a stream. So i proceeded to replace the tank and solder all the joints and fill the heater back up and replace the expansion tank. After i turned the water back on and bled the tank to the point where i am certain there is no more air in the tank, All my faucets seem to have a lower pressure than they did before. I am not sure where the pressure could have gone. I dont know if the expansion tank has anything to do with it? I checked the old one and it had no PSI in the air bladder. For how long I don not know but the new came pre pressurized with 25psi i believe. Is it possible that the shutoff valve was so corroded that it really didnt shut all the way and now can not open all the way back up??It seemed to spin the same in each direction not like it is stuck half closed.I know that when i opened the faucets for the 1st time a lot of air came out and a lot of rust colored water.
Any Ideas?
I purchased a new water heater with similar dimensions as the old one, the new one was high efficiency with digital controls. I also decided to replace the expansion tank as my system already had one and they are cheap so i said what the hell it cant hurt. So i shut the water off using the screw in type shutoff valve that comes out of the concrete slab next to the old water heater. Was a little hard to spin at 1st but i dont think it has ever been turned off before. I then opened the faucets to release the pressure in the lines. Once i did this I realized that no matter how hard i tried to shut that valve the faucet closest to the water main would not stop water running through it...it was a slow drip not quite a stream. So i proceeded to replace the tank and solder all the joints and fill the heater back up and replace the expansion tank. After i turned the water back on and bled the tank to the point where i am certain there is no more air in the tank, All my faucets seem to have a lower pressure than they did before. I am not sure where the pressure could have gone. I dont know if the expansion tank has anything to do with it? I checked the old one and it had no PSI in the air bladder. For how long I don not know but the new came pre pressurized with 25psi i believe. Is it possible that the shutoff valve was so corroded that it really didnt shut all the way and now can not open all the way back up??It seemed to spin the same in each direction not like it is stuck half closed.I know that when i opened the faucets for the 1st time a lot of air came out and a lot of rust colored water.
Any Ideas?