On Mar 28, 3:32*pm, 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.

Plumber came to assess. *Found water bubbling up out of the ground
near the shut off valve. *This was not apparent the other day. *He
repaired the leak and installed a new shut off and he and I could
still hear what sounds like water running behind the shower faucets,
with the main shut-off valve off and the meter continuing to spin
until turned off. *The sound is louder when the shut-off valve is
open.

He was going to continue digging to see if there are more leaks in the
copper but I can do the digging for less $. *He thought another leak
would be near the valve anyway. *But I've exposed about twelve feet of
line and still no more leaks visible. *His suggestion is to replace
the whole line with new to the meter since the copper is old anyway
and leaks may easily develop in the future, which sounds like a good
anyway.

He says there is no way water is getting past the valve and into the
house when the valve is off. *Sure makes sense to me. *His only other
thought is that there is a second supply line that has developed a
leak under the house. *But this is a "modest" no frills house and when
the shut-off valve is off, no water comes from any faucet.

I'll update further if and when warranted.

I found two more leaks as I continued digging, one of which was fairly
substantial. So the copper pipe was replaced with PVC. I'm not real
sure about the quality of the job the guy did, but for now the system
seems sealed with no sound emanating from behind the shower wall.
After envisioning walls getting torn apart, it's a relief knowing that
that wasn't necessary.

It turns out that the white material that I had thought was calcium
deposits clogging faucets is plastic from a disintegrating dip tube in
the water heater. Ruud/Rheem advised that there was a class action
suit addressing that in 1999, but filing closed in 2000, so no relief
there. With a heater at 16 years old it may be better to replace than
repair.