2 days ago, the hot water just stopped in my sons bathtub/shower. Sink is fine and every other hot water outlet in the house is fine. (3 other bathrooms, 1 kitchen sink & laundry room).

Setup - home is just 12 years old, but we just replaced our aging HWH that had calcium buildup and we had to clean a lot of faucet baskets to get the small hard deposits out. All sinks and tubs worked great after the replacement (2 months ago). It's gas and we replaced a 40 gallon with a 50 gallon.

Tub faucet is one of the cheap Delta all-in-one faucets where hot/cold merge and has mini regulator to keep hot/cold from mixing and we've noticed now that hot doesn't work, the cold will work sometimes. Probably because of lack of pressure. There is no shut-off system to the tub, it's hard sweated in just behind the tile. Can't even replace the faucet unless it's another Delta and/or remove all tile and rework.

What I've done/tried so far.
- Turned water to house off
- First, replaced Delta innards (Sold separately at HD) - didn't help. Something before faucet is blocking.
- Turned all water to house off, took innards out to see if both sides shot water horizontally in tub.
- Turned water on, cold shoots out, hot does not. It trickles, but no steady stream.
- Put it all back together.

Today, I decided to air presurize JUST the hot lines in the house to see if I could force any blockage out. 2 attempts at pushing 120psi, nothing.

We're back to square one. Is there ANY way short of tearing out the walls and tile to possibly remove the blockage? Does a plumber have a "mini" snack that fits into 1/2" copper?

Hi Coscooper:

I would start by locating the shutoff for the hot water supply to this valve. It could be an internal shutoff which would show up under the trim plate as a slotted screw head on the body of the valve itself, or it could be behind the wall in a closet that should have an access panel. You may need to cut an access panel in to find the shutoffs...

Anyway, see if you can locate any shutoffs and disassemble the hot water side, purge the line to clear of sediment and hopefully gets you up and running again.

Let me know what you think here...

MARK

Quote:

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Originally Posted by massplumber2008

Hi Coscooper:

I would start by locating the shutoff for the hot water supply to this valve. It could be an internal shutoff which would show up under the trim plate as a slotted screw head on the body of the valve itself, or it could be behind the wall in a closet that should have an access panel. You may need to cut an access panel in to find the shutoffs...

Anyway, see if you can locate any shutoffs and disassemble the hot water side, purge the line to clear of sediment and hopefully gets you up and running again.

Let me know what you think here...

MARK

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Mark - thanks for the ideas. Unfortunately, there was/is no shut-off... it's all hard sweated copper to the faucet houseing and there is no panel in the closet.

But... I did finally get it working.

I started by taking a small piece of solid copper wire and work it down the hot water hole. It hit something on the second elbow turn just below the faucet. But, I couldn't make any headway or dislodge the obstruction. So, I figured, couldn't hurt to just put some CLR down the hot side, so in the tiny hole on the left side of the faucet (delta) housing, I rigged up a small funnel on a hose and poured a little CLR in... figuring I could flush it later.

I let it sit for about 10 minutes, then reinserted the wire and the obstruction seems looser. Had my son turn the water back on, slightly, allowing just a little pressure... out shot a huge flat hard chunk of white calcium build up. I'm guessing from the looks, it built up along the flat bottom part of the lower elbow, then at some point, it flipped up and almost blocked the pipe.

All's well that ends well.

Glad you're all set for now...

What heats your hot water.. If it is a water heater, you may want to powerflush the unit on a regular basis to help reduce the chances of this happening again at this or any other faucets in the home.

Let me know if you need more info...

MARK

Quote:

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Originally Posted by massplumber2008

Glad you're all set for now...

What heats your hot water...? If it is a water heater, you may want to powerflush the unit on a regular basis to help reduce the chances of this happening again at this or any other faucets in the home.

Let me know if you need more info...

MARK

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We have a nice new 60 gallon gas hot water heater. We're actually flushing it every 2 months as we neglected our old one. I'm guessing the old unit was pushing out lots of calcium and this was/is a biproduct from that 10 year phase.

Trying to be more aware now and keep it better maintained. :D

Exactly what I hoped to hear!

In your travels over the next few weeks/months be sure to pick up a brass boiler drain cap (hose cap) from Home depot or similar store and place it on the drain to the water heater because some day... maybe years from now... that drain may clog up with some sediment and start leaking/dripping even after shutting it off and you'll be really glad you have that cap... ;)

Just something I've had a number of customers run into many times over the years... and yet a simple boiler cap would have saved all the trouble and expense!

Good luck!