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Plumbing pros, gotta question.

Paycheck

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Aug 14, 2014
Messages
1,364
This started today. Getting warm (80°) water out of my cold water faucets. Hot water is 120°. House has crawl space. During hot months (90’s) the crawl space temp is in the 80’s and cold water is cool, definitely not warm. Today is the first cool day in ages and crawl space temp is high 70’s, but cold water is coming out warmer than normal. This is at all faucets, upstairs and down.
Any ideas/suggestions?
 
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housewolf

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Feb 3, 2021
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1,144
Location
East Texas
This started today. Getting warm (80°) water out of my cold water faucets. Hot water is 120°. House has crawl space. During hot months (90’s) the crawl space temp is in the 80’s and cold water is cool, definitely not warm. Today is the first cool day in ages and crawl space temp is high 70’s, but cold water is coming out warmer than normal. This is at all faucets, upstairs and down.
Any ideas/suggestions?
Maybe check with a neighbor or a yard hydrant, somewhere apart from your house. If the water is warm there, there’s probably nothing you can do about it. If it’s cool there, you almost certainly have a cross connection (between H&C) in your house. The water heater is a cross connection, supposed to be. Feel the pipe entering the WH a couple of feet away, is it warm? Do you have any handheld shower sprays with the mixing valve open and turned off at the spray? If there is a mixing valve (tubs & showers, but most any faucet can do it) open with something stopping the water after the valve, that’s a common cause.
 
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Paycheck

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Aug 14, 2014
Messages
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Thanx for the input. I left the house for a few hours and when I returned everything was back to normal. Since this is the first time this has happened I will continue to monitor the system. The only single lever faucets I have are in the kitchen and garage sink. Bath sinks are two handle. Cold water was warm at all the faucets I tried, and it was warm almost immediately. Hot water backflowing into the cold lines in the water heater (electric, 40 gal tank) sounds probable. I will have to keep an eye on the temp of those lines.
 

JRC3

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Joined
Jun 30, 2014
Messages
12,481
Location
Southwestern OH
A faulty shower mix valve will do this too. Maybe even a single handle sink faucet but I've only ever seen it happen on safety shower valves.
 
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