I wrote a long and impassioned post last night, but lost it because I had only logged in for 60 minutes and had been booted without knowing it. Arrrrrggggh. So here goes:
We have a Central Boiler OWB. When we had it installed, we also wanted our hot water heated by it. The person who installed it did everything (electrical, plumbing, etc.) but remove our 12-year-old electric water heater and turn on and test the new water heater. 3! years! later! (not going there), he finally came back and cut off and capped the line to the old water heater, opened all the valves for the heater, and no! water! at! all! came out of any faucet in the house. It's like something is blocking the water from leaving the water heater. Water is going into the tank, just not getting hot and moving on. There is no air in the lines. The heater has the side-arm exchanger, there is a mixing valve on top, an expansion tank, and a plethora of pipes coming and going.
This adventure was late yesterday afternoon, and the plumber left with a bad attitude and no solution to the problem. I had a friend who owes me a favor come over and look at everything, and he couldn't figure it out either, but to be fair he has no experience with a setup like this. There is so much spaghetti down there it takes forever to figure out the flow, and you are still doubting yourself. I think I will go under the house and mark the lines with magic marker before my friend comes back with another plumber friend who has more experience. They can't come until this afternoon, so I am worried we will have to go another day or more with no hot water. My husband is freaking out and asking me impossible questions. He works weekend nights and having to shave and shower in cold water . . . .
The boiler is in our yard and the water heater is in the crawl space. We heat with radiators and are toasty warm, but having to walk in 30 degree temps to my mom's house to use her showers just isn't going to fly, although it doesn't bother her if we come up in our pajamas :)
Please please please help!
I sure don't know. But do know things can happen if not used. We have 2 bathrooms,2 showers. The guest bathroom did not get used for a year. No hot water. Plumber came and it was just kinda gummed up from not being used. He told me to just turn it on every so often.
Been studying the situation under the house, not seeing where the cold water supply goes into the tank before it goes through the side arm. The only cold I see going in is into the mixing valve.
Holy [I have typed a profane word that is automatically changed by the forum censored words program I should know better]! That is the problem! He didn't plumb in the cold supply to the tank! The only cold going in is to the mixing valve. :o
Sounds like you solved your problem. Hope it doesn't take three more years for your plummer to come back. :D
Some photograph's would help us see what's going on. Good Luck.
Pictures would really help but a few details might do. Does the tank pipe in from the bottom and the top or does it have two fittings on the top.(don't count a pressure relief) How big is the tank. Is a tank fitting unused or capped.
It is fixed! Had to pay someone $85 to diagnose, then got a friend that owed me money to do the actual work. The original installer did not do it correctly.
That is good news. What was done wrong.
Monkey, can I call you monkey, maybe to make you life simpler you need one of these.
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r.man
QuoteWhat was done wrong.
Her 11:46 post yesterday...
QuoteHe didn't plumb in the cold supply to the tank! The only cold going in is to the mixing valve.
I did read the part about the cold not being plumbed in but I was hoping for clarification, I find it hard to believe that any tradesman, not the first one who did it, could miss seeing that right away and they were having trouble finding the problem. Makes me think it was more complicated than an unused fitting and I am nosy about repairs. I make my living fixing things so I am always interested in odd or unusual problems.
What it was, was that he did not remove the anode rod and run the pipe from the side arm into that hole, but into the cold side, and did not tee off the cold line into water heater. The only cold was going to the mixing valve, but with no circulation of hot water, nothing was passing through it.
Now I have another problem. We had hot water for about twenty-four hours, now just cold, cold, cold. The only thing that changed was that my friend fixed a leak at the expansion tank. I bled some air out of the side arm and the water tank, but that did not fix the problem. I am truly stumped now. The hot does not seem to be circulating at all. The pipe that comes out of the side arm into the top of the tank is cold at the end that goes into the tank. Would any problem with the mixing valve cause this? I don't see how but I don't know what else to ask about.
had the same prob there is still air in the line and will not let the hot water circulate put a bleeder on top of hot water tank in the line I have to bleed mine every few months it gets air locked ??? good luck
Fixed it! My friend came over and we thunk and thunk and then we pulled the pipe apart at the bottom and blew compressed air up in it. Dusty & dirty and ready for that hot bath. ;D
I would have piped mine into my pressure relief fitting at the top side of my tank but because the sidearm someone gave me was so long I piped it into the top of the tank. I probably would have had a problem but while I was doing that I added a hose valve at the top as well so I could get hot water at the tank if I wanted. Dodged one I guess.