I just installed a new water heater and I have about 15% hot water pressure. The water is hot and the heater seems to be working. The cold water works fine. The pressure is low at all the outlets, even the washing machine outlet that shares the same line. When I installed the new one, I had to raise the copper lines 4-5 inches to fit the height of the new tank. Does anyone have any suggestions to fix this?

Hi jj and welcome, The first thing that comes to mind is the solder job, did you solder the fittings in the tank? Are all the pipes copper? Are you sure you completely opened the shut-off? There are great plumbers here, hang tight, they'll be along. Good luck

All the lines are copper and yes the valve is open. I'm not sure about the lines in the tank. I cut the lines that I soldiered to make sure I didn't block the lines. The lines look good.

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Originally Posted by parttime

Hi jj and welcome, The first thing that comes to mind is the solder job, did you solder the fittings in the tank? are all the pipes copper? Are you sure you completely opened the shut-off? There are great plumbers here, hang tight, they'll be along. good luck

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I did check the solder job I did for blockage and its good. The lines are all copper. The shut-off is completely opened. I took the lines off the water tank and it doesn't appear that the lines got to hot at the tank. There are no signs of plastic melted. I don't know how to check the fittings in the tank.

Well jj, I'm leaning towards too much heat at the tank, but lets wait and see what the expert have to say.

P.S. it being Sunday might take a little while.

And here we are! Did everything work OK before you swapped heaters? Are there heat trap nipples, (see image) installed on the tank? If so remove them and replace with 3/4 X 4 brass nipples. Is there a recirculating system installed? Can you give us ant more details? Back to you, Tom

Yup, I'm on the same page as Tom! I'm thinking that you may have installed the heat trap nipples incorrectly. Here, some (not all) heat trap nipples have direction in that they are required to be installed in one direction. If your nipples are one-way heat trap nipples you will see a small indented arrow in the nipple and you need to make sure these are installed correctly.

If your heat trap nipples are not one-way then I'd simply replace them as Tom suggested, but I'd probably use new DIELECTRIC NIPPLES without heat traps (available at all home improvement stores)... ;)

Good luck!

Mark

These are the steps I did to swap out the water heater.
1) Unwired the old tank. 2) Disconnected the union connectors. 3) unscrewed the 90 elbow off the tank on both sides. 4) Removed the old tank. The new tank was about 3" taller than the old one. I had to extend the copper lines that come from the floor up to the top of the tank. 5) I cut the copper lines and added a coupler, new copper line (to add to height), new 90 elbow, new copper line, and a coupler to connect to the old union connector. I reused from the union connector to the tank where it connects at the top. The fittings connected fine to the new tank. 6) I then soldered the new cooper joints together. Pressure is fine at the faucet on the cold side, but not much coming out on the hot side. I also bleeded the lines from air.
Trouble shooting:
1) I have checked the new lines I added to make sure there was no blockage (solder). This required disconnection the new tank, draining it so I could get to the second line, and disconnecting the connectors at the top of the tank. 2) I then resoldered the two lines. 3) I looked down the two lines on the tank and did not notice any damage to the tubes. 4) I have reconnected the lines and filled the tank. 5) I wired the new tank. 6) I let the tank fill and then bled the lines from air.
THERE IS STILL LITTLE TO NONE ON THE HOT WATER.

Please help

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Originally Posted by massplumber2008

Yup, I'm on the same page as Tom! I'm thinking that you may have installed the heat trap nipples incorrectly. Here, some (not all) heat trap nipples have direction in that they are required to be installed in one direction. If your nipples are one-way heat trap nipples you will see a small indented arrow in the nipple and you need to make sure these are installed correctly.

If your heat trap nipples are not one-way then I'd simply replace them as Tom suggested, but I'd probably use new DIELECTRIC NIPPLES without heat traps (available at all home improvement stores)...;)

Good luck!

Mark

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I had to replace the water heater because the other one busted. As far as the nipples, I did not install any. Unless the new 50g Whirlpool factory installs them. I only disconnected the lines, raised the height of my copper line and connected the lines to the tank the same way it was before.
I hope this gives you the information you need. This seemed to be a easy swap out. I have helped on two occasions swap out water heaters. I'm no expert, but not sure where things went wrong.

Most water heaters come with the nipples installed in them nowadays... I'd remove these and install new dielectric nipples (as mentioned at last post)... should resolve the issue!

Here, we're thinking the heat trap nipple is the issue. Start here... let us know what happens!

Mark

There is another to all of this. When you replaced the heater you could haven broken loose some minerals built up in the pipe walls. Once this crud get into your system it could clog the inlet ports on your cartridges and the hot water supply lines. Let's check and see.
Try this. Shut the water off to a faucet and pull the cartridge, Check the inlet ports for trash and clean. Now place a pan over the open valve and turn the water back on for a minute to flush out the supply. You should have a strong stream when doing so. Reassemble and test. If that works do it on all affected taps, good luck, Tom