One more thing. The pressure relief valve is connected to a copper pipe
that goes inside the wall. I remember when I drained the tank I heard a
lot of noise coming from behind the wall (which I thought was strange at
the time). Could there be some sort of reverse siphoning going on from
the drain? Or am I going nuts?

Cuse

Cuse wrote:

Michael Baugh wrote:

If at any time you drained the water level down below a heater,
it will likely have burned itself up, and they can be replaced.

If you replace a valve, I suggest using a ball valve instead of a gate
or other style valve.

I will keep this in mind.


Start at the beginning. Under each of the cover plates, there are
round things that are individual thermostats. One for each of the
heaters.

Is the line coming into the house, the one at the main water cutoff
valve,
steel or copper line?


Galvanized steel I think, but painted.

Here are the diagnosis I have done so far.

I left the power to the heater on last night, and this morning I felt
the hot and water copper pipes that comes out of the heater. They were
both hot. This tells me the heating elements are working and the water
inside the tank is hot.

I then turned off the power to the heater.

I then opened the kitchen faucet (hot side) for 30 seconds. Water came
out, hot water, but the pressure is very low, I would say the hot water
flow rate is about 10% of the cold water flow rate. Then it practically
reduced to a dizzle after 10 seconds.

I went back into the garage and felt the copper pipe section after the
valve. It felt cold now. This tells me while I had the kitchen faucet
on, hot water was drawn from the heater and cold water entered the
heater and now the pipe contains new cold water. The valve was not
closed. I also turned on the kitchen faucet for another 30 seconds,
shut it odd and listen closely to the copper pipe, I can hear water
flowing through it.

I feel the tank is full but there is no water pressure to deliver the
hot water.

Next, I decide to look at the valve to see may be there is a partial
blockage.

I used a marker to place a dot on the shaft of the valve stem. I turned
the valve and it moved. So this tells me it is not the handle By the
way the stop valve is a T connection, brass, says "Mueller Streamline
3/4 200 WOG" not sure if this means anything. All it tells me is that
it is 3/4". It has a blue, circular handle. I am not sure if it is a
ball valve, or a gate valve, or a compression valve. All I know is that
when I turned the handle in both directions, the shaft does turn with
it, but the shaft does not go higher or lower like I am tightening or
loosening it.

I turned off water supply to the house, the unscrew the nut on top. The
seems to loosen the handle but nothing else. I retightened it.

Next, I tried to open the bigger nut at the bottom, I think the call it
the "valve stem"? But I cannot. If I turn it real hard it starts to
stress the copper pipe. If I try to steady the valve itself while I do
this, it is impossible, the heater is located at the corner of the
garage and the connection is right above. The angle is such that I
cannot do this by myself. I am not sure about getting a plumber. Last
time when the heater was installed, the plumber had to solder a pipe
inside the wall, it burned the insulation and started a fire that went
all the way to the ceiling.

I just cannot figure out what is wrong. The most logical explanation is
that the stop valve is bad (or is clogged) but is partially opened,
could this account for all the pressure loss?

Cuse


Cuse wrote in message
...


Thanks. I did not know I need to open the tap to fill the tank. Of
all
the step by step water tank drain instructions never did they mention
this. I do feel the tank is now full of water, but is lacking pressure
to push the water through the line.

The shower at the most downstream end does not even drip a drop of
water
when I turn it on now. It has a pressure balanced valve so I
figured if
I have no hot water pressure it will not run at all. The sink faucet
has normal cold water, and no hot water. But if I go back to the
kitchen (which is the closest to the water heater) and turn that on,
the
bathroom faucet will now have water out with the lever on hot.
Granted,
the water is cold, but now my worries is not so much hot water, is this
exercise seems to have cause the entire house water pressure to drop or
somehow air has gotten into the system.

Cuse

George E. Cawthon wrote:



Yes you need a tap opened to fill the tank. If you open the
kitchen faucet to hot water, (or any other faucet) the tank
should fill and then water would come out the open faucet.
Since that doesn't happen, you either didn't wait long
enough, or the coldwater valve is not letting water into the
hot water tank. It sound like that has happened and by now
you have probably burned up the heating element (which
should make little or no noise).

Hopefully you closed the relief valve. You could have left
it open until water started running out of it. Btw, the
ho****er tank is 220v, so you don't need to turn off all
electricity to the whole house, just turn off the 220
breakers.

You recognized a problem with the cold water valve at the
tank and failed to do anything. Big mistake.

Your next step is to turn the water off at the street and
replace the coldwater valve at the water heater. Before you
do that, again turn the handle and make sure the stem is
turning. If the stem is not turning, remove the handle and
put vice grips on the stem and turn it. After you get the
valve fixed or replaced, you can turn the water on, fill the
tank, and see if the heater elements are working. If after
and hour or two you get very cold water, the elements are
burned out and you will have to drain the tank and replace
the elements. Should you do that? I'm not sure, maybe just
buy a replacement tank for $150.

Cuse wrote:




It seems keeping the kitchen faucet running I got the tank filled
now.
However I am not sure if it is partially filled or fully filled. I
took a chance after the filling sound stopped. The heater started
and
the sound seems OK, sounds like a whirlpool being turned on.

After 10 minutes I still have my kitchen faucet running, then the
water
shot out with lower volume, higher volume, fluctuating like crazy.
There must be air and/or pressure imbalance somewhere. Should I open
the pressure relief valve on top of the tank?

What really happened?

When I drained the water I had the relief valve opened. so as the
water
drained is sucked air into the tank? and when I closed the drain and
valve the air in the tank prevented the water from entering the tank
until I turn the kitchen faucet on to draw air out? Is this right?

Confused and still not sure I will get hot water tonight.

Cuse

Cuse wrote:





This is unlikely. The resistance is about the same either way
and not
different from when I first touched it.

I did noticed something strange. If I turn on the water in my
kitchen, I hear activity inside the tank that sounds like refilling.
If I turned off the water, it stops. Not all faucet in my house
will
cause this, but some of them. Why?

Some sort of pressure problem created by the draining?

I did pulled the tempearture pressure relief valve during the
draining. Pulling means pushing that lever until it is 90 %
(vertical)
right?

Cuse

SoCalMike wrote:





"Cuse" wrote in message
...






Problem...

I went to turn off the cold water and as I turned the valve it
kept
turning. It does not seem to be tightening or loosening at all
as I
turned the valve either way. I think it is broken for some
reason.





you probably tightened it shut, then stripped the handle. id
probably
try to
put some vicegrips on the stem, and reopen the valve.