On Mar 26, 6:53*pm, wrote:
On Mar 26, 6:09*pm, bob haller wrote:





On Mar 26, 5:35*pm, wrote:

More questions regarding my plumbing project of yesterday. *I replaced
two valve stems in a shower/tub and had to clean out material that was
clogging what I assume are the valve seats due to low flow. *I did
this by gently disturbing the material with a small screwdriver, then
blowing it out without the stems in place.

Today I tried draining the hot water heater since the hot faucet is
the one that was clogged yesterday. *When I opened the drain to drain
the tank very little water came out so I turned the water to the
heater on to flush it out and let it run for several minutes. *Then
turned the tank's water control off and still no water drained from
it. *So I closed the drain pipe and turned the water back on to fill
the heater. *Tank had never been drained before this attempt.

Then when in the bathroom where I replaced the valve stems a couple of
hours later, I could and still can hear what sounds like water running
behind the wall. *Water flow in the tub was reduced for both hot and
cold this time, so I removed the stems and again there was this white
sediment clogging both valves. *I cleaned that out again.

The water supply valve for the house is OFF, but I am still hearing
what sounds like water running behind the shower wall. *No water
leaking from the valves or any faucet in the house. *The water shut
off valve is just outside the affected shower wall. *This bathroom is
the furthest site of water consumption from the water heater.

Could I have damaged something by running water through the hot water
heater for an extended time period? *Or could what I'm hearing be air
in the pipes? *Unfortunately, this does not sound like air. *I'm not
getting how I could be hearing water running behind the wall with the
main supply valve off.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

confirm main shutoff valve is closed, open valves at lowest place in
home, open all valves thru house. the lowest valves should drain for a
bit then stop, unless your main inlet valve is bad.

thats a strong possiblity, it happened to me a very memorable day:
( YUK

Did the water running sound stop? It should with everything shut off
and drained.

With a older water heater its best to leave them be, the drasin valve
is likely cheap plastic designed for one thing draining tank at end of
life. Most often they leak if disturbed.

You can get a screw on cap to stop its leaking.

I HOPE you turned the gas or electric off when draing the tank, if the
water level dropped it can do permanent damage to your tank.

What kind of water lines do you have ? galvanized? copper? plastic?
PEX?

Thank you for the reply.

The water department was just here and turned off the meter. *That
turned off the water. *So I have a broken pipe at some point. *I could
also hear the water running outside next to the shut off with the
valve off. *I wonder whether that suggests that the break is outside?

This is an older house and I really don't know what the pipes are made
off.

If it is the main inlet valve that is bad, wouldn't there still be
water available at the faucets with the valve off?

That depends on what you mean by bad. If it's failed so that water
gets
by the valve when it's closed, then the answer would be yes. But if
it's failed by leaking water to the outside, then it would have no
effect
on water getting by the valve. Why would you think the valve might
be bad to begin with?


*There isn't any
right now with the valve off. *Not even a drip coming out of the tub
valves with the stems out.

Which is what you would expect. .




And by the way, yes the electric was off when draining the H/W tank.

I am really not getting the connection between draining the h/w tank
or even replacing the valve stems and this break. *Guess I'll find out
when I get a plumber out here.

Draining the water heater should have had no effect on any pipe
breaking. Unless it was in a very deteriorated state and you turned
the water on and off rapidly while it was flowing at a good rate.
That
could have created a surge that pushed the pipe over the edge, but]
it would have happened before long without that additional hellp, if
that is what happened.

Same thing with screwing around with old valve stems. If the plumbing
was about to go, you may have given it the final push.

What's under the area with the wall with the bathroom valves? If you
have access, I'd find out if water is showing up below. If you can
hear
it running and it's moving the meter, the water has to be going
somewhere.
If it turns out to be inside that wall, next consideration is what's
on the
other side. If it's a closet wall for example, that can make the
process
of cutting an access hole easier.






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