I have lost the hot water pressure in my house after doing laundry twice in the past two weeks. The first time, I went to turn on the kitchen faucet (this is the one nearest the hot water heater) a couple hours after running a couple loads of cold laundry (the clothes washer is the closest faucet to the hot water heater), and right away everything seems fine- then in about 2 secs time the water goes to a small trickle. Flushed the hot water heater, and tinkered with a few things and somehow miraculously better- never saw any crazy amount of sediment or anything unusual. The second time, again I went to turn on the kitchen faucet about 20 minutes after doing a couple loads of cold laundry and again everything seems fine at first, but within 10 seconds time the water goes to a trickle. This time the trickle is larger and the time it takes to diminish is greater, but still not normal. The water does get hot, but the pressure is almost gone and this affects all faucets in the house. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Do you have heat trap nipples on your heater? Let me know, Tom

In the book I was given with the water heater when the house was built it says there is. I went to look and couldn't see anything so I believe they are internal (the guide says some models may have external, but I don't see anything like your picture.) According to the picture in the guide they are inside the two outer pipes coming into the top of the hot water heater. Does this sound right? If it helps the model I have is a Rheemglas Fury electric water heater. Now that I know I have them- what next? Am I going to need a plumber since they are internal or is this still something your average handyman could fix? I am particularly worried about how to unhook and rehook the pipes at the water heater to get to the heat trap nipples. Will there be any soldering involved or should they just screw on and off? Your help is greatly appreciated- I look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Please help