I purchased a home with damaged water lines due to cold weather,anyway starting the water lines today and noticed that the hot and cold threaded lines on water heater have heat traps in them,cold is hollow can put screwdriver down 3" the hot one about 1"its solid,first is this normal,second should the heat traps be in the water heater or in a piece of pipe outside the unit,cant figure out how hot water will come out of tank while plastic is solid in line,can they be removed?if so how.thanks Steve.

Hi Steve

Those heat trap nipples can cause problems, but it sounds like yours are fine, at least for now.

In older model heat trap nipples the heat trap was round in shape and on the hot water nipple floats up when hot water is called for...falls back down and traps heat after water is used, so that should explain why the hot water nipple stops when you insert a tool.

In terms of the cold water nipple, it needs water in the tank to "float" the ball into the nipple...should explain why you were able to insert something down and into the nipple.

I would just fill the water heater and see how you make out here...all sounds fine...SO FAR!!

Good luck!

Mark

PS: Newer style heat trap nipples have simple flappers in them so they move freely back and forth regardless of water volume, or water use. Just FYI.