Plumbing question

[jeff47]

3. Here's a few possible reasons

Last edited Wed Aug 6, 2014, 10:03 AM - Edit history (1)

1 - just a defective faucet. The hot knob wasn't built properly and it eventually failed.

2 - High water pressure. Do your toilets make A LOT of noise when they fill? More than anyone else's? Does the water come out of the faucets much harder than other places you've been? (Or you could test the pressure - there's a cheap gauge you can find at a home center that screws onto a hose bib) Sometimes the city will upgrade the water system, and buildings that used to not need a pressure reducer suddenly need a pressure reducer.

3 - High water pressure mark 2: To protect the water system, cites are installing backflow preventer valves in the water line. What they do is keep water from flowing from your building back into the water system. The city doesn't want to have to worry about what you might have put in the water.

Where this can turn into high pressure is your hot water heater (or the building's hot water heater). Water, like most substances, expands when heated. Before backflow preventer valves, the expansion was absorbed by the water system - the extra volume just went back a little in the pipes. With backflow preventers installed, your hot water heater needs an expansion tank to absorb the extra volume.

If the backflow preventer is new, an expansion tank may not have been installed.