Hi,

I own a small plumbing service and have a problem I've never encountered before. I installed a new top vented gas water heater for a customer. Turned the main back on, bled air out of the lines, etc. Problem is there is no hot water pressure throughout the house. Cold water pressure is fine. The heater is heating fine, and the outgoing hot water line coming from the heater is hot and full. Also, the heater is full of water, just no hot water pressure in the house nowhere. I also made sure the rubber pieces at the top of the heater (where you install the new galvinized nipples at on both hot and cold side) were removed before hooking up the water lines. House is plumbed with copper lines.

Please help!
Scott

speedball1

You say you removed the heat trap nipples and connected directly through copper? That would be my first concern. If the heat trap nipples are still connected then remove them and see if that dorsn't help. If you've connected directly and can't get hot water through the faucets then I would suspect that you've disturbed minerals built up on the pipe walls and not they're in the hot water system clogging up the hot water inlet ports in the faucets cartridges. Check and let me know. Good luck, Tom

T-N-T Plumbing

No, I was talking about the 3/4 galvinized threaded nipples that make the connection from
the incoming pipes into the top of the heater. They screw into the top of the heater into the incoming and outgoing ports and where they connect to the copper you have a 3/4 female connector. What I removed before installing the heater was the small rubber pieces that the heater company puts into the holes to prevent trash from getting into the heater during transport, unpacking, etc. I hope this helps clear the situation up.

Thanks again!

iamgrowler

Were the nipples just plain run of the mill galvanized nipples, or were they heat trap or dialectric nipples?

T-N-T Plumbing

Yep, just plain galvanized 3/4 nipples.

iamgrowler

If the problem is prevalent in the entire hot water system and not simply at a single outlet, I would start at the dip tube on the cold water side of the tank and work backwards from there.

It's a possibility, albeit a remote one, that you misaligned the dip tube when you pulled out the rubber plugs and then crushed the opening of the dip tube when you installed the nipples.

speedball1

"If the problem is prevalent in the entire hot water system and not simply at a single outlet, I would start at the dip tube on the cold water side of the tank and work backwards from there. It's a possibility, albeit a remote one, that you misaligned the dip tube when you pulled out the rubber plugs and then crushed the opening of the dip tube when you installed the nipples."

To check this possibility simply open up the boiler drain and see if you have full pressure there. If you have no pressure then Growler nailed it. Good luck, Tom

ksteitle

I had this similar problem after I installed a new water heater (low pressure only on the hot side). I removed the factory installed di-electric nipples and the heat traps below them and used 3/4" brass nipples. This solved the problem of the low water pressure on the hot side. Hope this helps...

Milo Dolezal

Those factory nipples on hot water side have built-in check valve. Sometimes it gets stuck disallowing water flow.