Hello:

I live in a condo where there are 6 units to a building. I recently had to shut off the water supply to the entire building to replace a hot water tap in the kitchen dishwasher as part of a remodeling project (lots of banging, tearing). Now my neighbors downstairs are saying that they don't get any hot water in their kitchen (it's directly below my kitchen)--only cold water is available from the hot water tap. Every other room in their units (bathrooms, washer) have hot water.

There are 3 units on the bottom floor, 3 units on the upper floor. The units on the upper floor are working fine--hot water available on all rooms. But even though we don't have any faucets hooked up to our kitchen taps, we ran a hose to the outlet and felt that the pipe is hot--we're getting hot water.

What could be the cause of this? It is just strange. The faucets on the lower units should be Price Pfister, single handle units. I went into a unit below and turned off the cold water tap and turned on the faucet but the water is still cold. I turned off both cold and hot water taps and no water came out, as expected. There is only one water heater to the entire building. I can understand crud from calcium buildup (we have hard water) preventing the flow of hot water but why would the top units get hot water and water pressure from the hot tap unchanged?


Thanks for any advice the experts can provide.

You knocked a bunch of crud loose and it has found its way somewhere to block some of the water lines. Try pulling some of the cartridges out and turning the water back on. If you are lucky, that is where the clog is, and the water will wash it out. Otherwise, it could be an elbow or tee inside a wall.

Problem is in the lower units because the crud was too heavy to go to the upper units.

Thanks for your advice. When you say cartridges, what do you mean? Do you mean opening up the faucet's handle and pulling whatever is inside?

I'm also wondering if you can explain if some of the water pipes are blocked, why is there cold water (with no apparent drop in pressure) coming out from the hot taps. This behavior is most perplexing. I can understand sediments blocking the hot water pipes but there should be either no water coming out or a drop in pressure. I have tried to search in this forum and on usenet but there aren't anything that comes up close to what I'm experiencing.

Thanks again.

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Originally Posted by klui

Thanks for your advice. When you say cartridges, what do you mean? Do you mean opening up the faucet's handle and pulling whatever is inside?

I'm also wondering if you can explain if some of the water pipes are blocked, why is there cold water (with no apparent drop in pressure) coming out from the hot taps. This behavior is most perplexing. I can understand sediments blocking the hot water pipes but there should be either no water coming out or a drop in pressure. I have tried to search in this forum and on usenet but there aren't anything that comes up close to what I'm experiencing.

Thanks again.

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" When you say cartridges, what do you mean? Do you mean opening up the faucet's handle and pulling whatever is inside?"

That's exactly what Labman meant. Check the inlet ports, (holes) in the cartridges for blockage and then turn on the water and flush out the open valve and supply lines. What you've done is disturb crud and mineral build up in the pipes when you worked on them. The first person to make a draw on the hot water sucked the crud into his kitchen faucet. Depending on how the ports are clogged the cold water might be getting diverted into the hot side which would explain your problem. Let us know how you make out. Cheers, Tom

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Originally Posted by speedball1

What you've done is disturb crud and mineral build up in the pipes when you worked on them. The first person to make a draw on the hot water sucked the crud into his kitchen faucet. Depending on how the ports are clogged the cold water might be getting diverted into the hot side which would explain your problem. Let us know how you make out. Cheers, Tom

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Thank you both. I will let you know how it turns out.

One last question. I thought that cold water and hot water would be routed through separate pipes. Is this not how things are done?

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Originally Posted by klui

Thank you both. I will let you know how it turns out.

One last question. I thought that cold water and hot water would be routed through separate pipes. Is this not how things are done?

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... in light of the crud factor and a single handle faucet. With a two handle unit you would not have any flow from the hot water side (or any cold water diverted) assuming the crud blocked the flow in the hot water pipe to the faucet.

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Originally Posted by Flickit

(Ordinarily but not)...in light of the crud factor and a single handle faucet. With a two handle unit you would not have any flow from the hot water side (or any cold water diverted) assuming the crud blocked the flow in the hot water pipe to the faucet.

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I suppose the builders were very cheap in the way they hooked up things if this can happen. It confused me when I shut off the cold water supply on the tap underneath the sink and I still got water from the hot side.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by klui

I suppose the builders were very cheap in the way they hooked up things if this can happen. It confused me when I shut off the cold water supply on the tap underneath the sink and I still got water from the hot side.

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Why should it confuse you? On a single lever valve there can be "bleed over" in the cartridge, especially if the handle isn't hard against the stop. This is just the nature of the beast. Cheers, Tom

Hello:

We asked the plumber out and he inspected the system. It turned out that there was an air block on one of the remote pipes. Bleeding the entire system solved the problem. We had recently had a new low flow valve installed that also included a new shut off valve--this shut off valve is a lot easier to use and looks like a big lever, the old shut off valve was under ground and required a special tool. Maybe this new low flow valve caused the air block? The old valve never caused certain occupants not getting any hot water.

February 22, 2013

Happens to me the same thing ,but who is responsible for repairing the owner or the association
Only only my unit , out of 69 units

Thank you

Ernesto Trigueros

My email <removed>

Sory for my epaling I am Latino