Ask Experts Questions for FREE Help !
Ask
    morank's Avatar
    morank Posts: 6, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #1

    Mar 11, 2005, 07:22 AM
    Sudden loss of hot water pressure in entire house
    Greetings,
    I have a sudden loss of hot water pressure in entire house (all showers, washing machine, sinks, etc.) Nothing has been touched or replaced. We have a well and our 50 gallon hot water heater is new - installed Sept. 2003. I have been reading this could be 'air pressure' related but I'm not sure how to troubleshoot? Thanks!
    labman's Avatar
    labman Posts: 10,580, Reputation: 551
    Uber Member
     
    #2

    Mar 11, 2005, 07:51 AM
    More likely the problem is some minerals or scale broke loose and traveled to where it was trapped in a bend or tee. Shut off the hot water tank, and the cold water to it, open a far hot water tap, and open the drain to the tank. With a little luck, water will run back to the tank, flushing the blockage to the tank and out the drain. If that doesn't help, try opening both the cold and hot at a mixing faucet, and holding your hand over the outlet to force cold water back to the tank.

    If that doesn't work, you may have to start breaking pipe joints. If the hot water goes down after coming ot the top of the tank, the elbow at lowest point may be the problem.
    morank's Avatar
    morank Posts: 6, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #3

    Mar 11, 2005, 08:09 AM
    THANK YOU FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE and thorough response!
    I will try that.
    More info: When I first turn the hot water on (closest fixture from hot water heater is tub) I notice the hot water will run with good and consistent strength for about 90 seconds, and then a very sudden drop in pressure to almost a trickle. I was able to reproduce this 3 times in the last few hours. Does this give you any more ideas? If something was caught in pipe, I would never have a good flow right? Versus a flow that only flows strong for x time? Thanks!
    labman's Avatar
    labman Posts: 10,580, Reputation: 551
    Uber Member
     
    #4

    Mar 11, 2005, 08:25 AM
    If the restriction is at the top of a vertical section, it may take time for the crud to collect at the top again.
    speedball1's Avatar
    speedball1 Posts: 29,301, Reputation: 1939
    Eternal Plumber
     
    #5

    Mar 11, 2005, 08:41 AM
    Sudden loss of hot water pressure in entire house
    Quote Originally Posted by morank
    THANK YOU FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE and thorough response!
    I will try that.
    More info: When I first turn the hot water on (closest fixture from hot water heater is tub) I notice the hot water will run with good and consistent strength for about 90 seconds, and then a very sudden drop in pressure to almost a trickle. I was able to reproduce this 3 times in the last few hours. Does this give you any more ideas? If something was caught in pipe, I would never have a good flow right? Versus a flow that only flows strong for x time? Thanks!
    Something has disturbed the mineral built up on your pipe walls or your pump is pumping sand or soil into your system. The reason you can get a good stream a that cuts off after a few seconds is that when the faucet's closed the clogs falls back down the supply. Then when you make a draw the water brings it right back up and clogs the faucet. You have to take apart the faucets and flush out the system from the mains through the branches and supplies. If the entire house is affected you may want to call in outside help. Good luck, Tom
    morank's Avatar
    morank Posts: 6, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #6

    Mar 15, 2005, 02:22 PM
    I called a plumber. Since pressure problem existed all over house at every fixture and washing machine/dish washer/etc. we tested pressure coming into house from well pump using gauge on water well tank inside house. Gauge showed only 32 lbs coming in from well on a 40-60 which explained our lack of pressure. Problem either crack in pipe from house to well, or well pump. Dug up the well head outside house. Using compressor filled pipe again and now gauge inside house shows a solid 50lbs sustained pressure without leaks on pipe leading from house to well. Only thing left suspect is the well pump. Plenty of water in well - 500 ft. filled with water on a 600 ft. well. Perhaps the staging is off on the pump or it is going bad in some other way. Thanks everybody for responding!
    - kathy
    speedball1's Avatar
    speedball1 Posts: 29,301, Reputation: 1939
    Eternal Plumber
     
    #7

    Mar 15, 2005, 03:26 PM
    Sudden loss of hot water pressure in entire house
    Quote Originally Posted by morank
    I called a plumber. Since pressure problem existed all over house at every fixture and washing machine/dish washer/etc., we tested pressure coming into house from well pump using gauge on water well tank inside house. Gauge showed only 32 lbs coming in from well on a 40-60 which explained our lack of pressure. Problem either crack in pipe from house to well, or well pump. Dug up the well head outside house. Using compressor filled pipe again and now gauge inside house shows a solid 50lbs sustained pressure without leaks on pipe leading from house to well. Only thing left suspect is the well pump. Plenty of water in well - 500 ft. filled with water on a 600 ft. well. Perhaps the staging is off on the pump or it is going bad in some other way. Thanks everybody for responding!
    - kathy
    Hi Kathy,

    Why did they dig up anything and use compressed air to test the integrity of the lines when all they had to do is run the pump until it reached cut out pressure, shut the house shut off,turn off the pump at the breaker box and watch the pressure gage. A fast drop in pressure would indicate a leak in the service line. Has anybody thought to increase the pressure at the control box? Not that I think your plumber missed the boat but let me show you how to increase the pressure.
    Your pump has a pressure control. As a rule this will be Square D. First turnoff the power at the breaker box, then pull the cover off the pressure switch and you will see two spring loaded bolts secured with nylon nuts. One tall, one short. To increase the cut in pressure, turn the nut on the tall bolt down. To increase the cut out pressure,(that's the one that will give you more pressure) turn the nut on the short bolt down. This should give you the additional preesure you desire. This might just save you the labor and expense of replacing the pump. Good luck, Tom
    morank's Avatar
    morank Posts: 6, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #8

    Mar 16, 2005, 10:14 AM
    Tom you are AWESOME and thank you!
    Let me see if I can rearticulate all this back to you - since I'm not a plumber but an Internet engineer. :)

    Initially he did not use the compressed air. Initially he did just what you said I think; ran the pump until it reached cut out pressure, I watched him shut the house water off (turned the little red handle on the copper pipe), turned the electricity to the pump off at the pump breaker box, and watched the pressure gauge. I believe this is when he saw the needle go down to 32 lbs. I think I heard him say that the pressure was leaking and we weren't getting up to 50 on a 40-60 switch and that meant possibly a leak in the line or a problem at the well pump side. I saw him clamp a volt meter to the electrical breaker box at the base of the house water tank, turn the house water off and look at a voltage meter and he said he saw the pump was still pumping at 7 amps (?) and I read the breaker box sticker on cover which said 6.4 amps. He said the pump kept pumping because the pressure requirement was never being fulfilled so the pump thought it was supposed to continue pumping... either the pump was working as designed and there was a leak in the supply line, or the pump was pumping even though it shouldn't be.

    He said perhaps this might be either be a leak in the supply line, or if we're lucky some loose bracket at pump well side or something else on pump end and we tried to eliminate the supply line as a problem. He used the compressed air as a final test and after the compressed air test he still said we're at 32-35 but not to even 40 lbs.

    At this point he said we then needed to check the well side for a malfunction but we could not dig up well head because of 4 feet of snow and dark out, so I took the weekend to dig it up for him to access by today (Tuesday.)

    > Has anybody thought to increase the pressure at the control box?
    Actually the pressure in the house has always been just great. This was a change I noticed suddenly - within a day or two went from 'great' to 'something feels wrong with the pressure'. THANK YOU for the directions on how to increase the pressure though for future if I ever need.

    Today we accessed the well head, lifted it, and he did some things with gauges that I couldn't see, and he said there did not seem to be a problem with the supply line from well to house which is good. But that since we still had a pressure problem perhaps the pump itself wasn't pumping at the rate it needed to. He left to investigate pump prices... 3/4 hp 230 volt 5 gallon well pump.

    Oddly enough, after he left, I took a shower to cleanup after being in the dirt. The pressure seemed fine now. Hmm. I went to the jazuzzi where I was always able to reproduce this problem... turn on water and wait 90-120 seconds and it goes from full flow to WHAM - trickle. Well - this time I turned on jacuzzi and it ran full flow for over 12 minutes when I stopped it. Turned on washing machine - no problem. Dishwasher - no problem. All sinks and flushed all toilets - no problem.

    I'm wondering what the problem was - and if I still do have a problem. I will wait a few days to monitor this behavior before deciding our next move. Wondering if our troubleshooting on the well pump end might have dislodged something that had the pressure obstructed? (Our efforts included us lifting the 'screw pipe' (?) up and clamping it so it wouldn't fall back down into well - while he retrofitted some valve devices he used.

    Everything seems fine now. Strange. Wonder if I have a problem that will resurface.

    Thoughts Tom?
    - kath
    speedball1's Avatar
    speedball1 Posts: 29,301, Reputation: 1939
    Eternal Plumber
     
    #9

    Mar 16, 2005, 11:45 AM
    Pump Prob
    Hey Kath,

    Until I read your last part I was about ready to point a finger at a faulty impeller in your pump but they don't fix themselves.
    Tell you whot will "fix itself" that I haven't seen mentioned yet. The check valve. If it were stuck in the open position then then pump wouldn't have anything to pump against and all the pressure would go back down into the well and the pump wouldn't shut off. Also you would lose pressure once the pump was shut off at the breaker box. SNAP!! The check valve freed up and the pump now pumps to pressure. I don't pretend to be a pump expert. In the Tampa Bay area pumps, septic tanks, water softeners and heating systems are separate trades. But in the course of running service calls I've been exposed to pump problems. If I had to check something before going into the hassle and expense of replacing the pump I'd look real hard at the check valve. Cheers, Tom
    morank's Avatar
    morank Posts: 6, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #10

    Mar 17, 2005, 04:07 PM
    Check valve - ah. You are a thinker. Wish you were MY plumber. Thanks Tom. I'll run the 'check valve' theory by him. Meanwhile I'm looking up what the 'check valve' actually does so I might better understand. THANKS AGAIN. (my email is [email protected]) if you wanted to not clog up the thread anymore but had anything else you would like to contribute. Cheers.
    morank's Avatar
    morank Posts: 6, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #11

    May 12, 2005, 01:10 PM
    Low Pressure from Well - FIXED!
    Thanks Tom and Labman for all your help! As I mentioned to Tom, my water pressure in entire house problem returned within 5 weeks. Today we pulled up the well pump (with an 'Upsy-Daisy'?) - pump was 300 feet down (pulled up fifteen 20ft sections of PVC) and when the pump surfaced - WHALLA we saw the problem. Where the last 20ft section of pipe screws into the pump it was completely cracked at the base of the pipe. Also there was no check valve attached. We replaced these faulty parts, put a check valve as well.

    WATER PRESSURE BETTER THAN EVER!
    I learned SO MUCH today. Thanks all for your help!
    - kathy
    jealybean's Avatar
    jealybean Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #12

    Jul 29, 2010, 11:14 PM
    My hot water was working fine last night and then this morning my husband ended up with a cold shower. When he turned on the tap it was as if there was air in the pipes but nothing has been touched. Can you help?
    berrod1's Avatar
    berrod1 Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #13

    Aug 5, 2010, 06:24 AM
    I change my out side faucet an lose pressure to my hot water. How can I fix it help
    joesm's Avatar
    joesm Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #14

    Sep 29, 2011, 08:51 AM
    Tom - I agree. You ARE awesome!

Not your question? Ask your question View similar questions

 

Question Tools Search this Question
Search this Question:

Advanced Search

Add your answer here.


Check out some similar questions!

Low hot water pressure - entire house [ 2 Answers ]

I've read many of the other posts, and I'm somewhat re-assured that I'm not the only one having problems with hot water pressure. For confirmation, here's my problem: I have a standard gas hot water heater in my basement; throughout the entire house my hot water pressure has recently dropped...

Sudden loss of water pressure [ 6 Answers ]

A couple of days ago I turned on the water at my kitchen sink and it came out with the usual force, but then about 10 seconds later it slowed down considerably. This continues to happen on both the cold and hot water, but I have not seen this happen at any of the other faucets in the house. ...

Sudden pressure loss in Sink [ 1 Answers ]

My sink has suddenly lost pressure, I ran it for about 10 seconds and it was fine, a few minutes later I turned it on and it was nothing but a drizzle. I've checked around the lines and there is no leaking and it drizzles the same in both sprayer modes. Over the last hour it has picked up a...

Low hot water pressure entire house [ 1 Answers ]

Hi everyone. We have 3 yr old house/ boiler and have noticed recently an overall drop in our hot water pressure. We have a thermo dynamics oil fed boiler(no hot water tank). Could our heating coil be getting "crudded up" w/ mineral deposits like a hot water heater? How do we test or...

Sudden hot water pressure loss, seeking advice! [ 1 Answers ]

Our shower recently began to act weird.  One day we had to turn the single control knob much hotter to get the same temp that we did before.  Now, about a month after that, we have to turn the knob even further, and we have lost a lot of our hot water pressure.  The rest of the house seems to have...


View more questions Search