OT: Instant hot water heater spatters

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The question is: What valve? :-)

It's actually a very simple deal: Water line -> carbon filter -> Y-splitter to cold water faucet and to this little water heater.

Then ... line goes up to push-button valve -> back down into bottom of tank -> tank runs into curved outlet up top. That outlet has no valve, just a pipe that must remain open and unobstructed at all times.

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The one you push to dispense the hot water. Is it actually there or does it activate a solenoid valve deep inside ?>:-} ...Jim Thompson

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No, it's a real mechanical push-button valve, incoming water line goes in, out, and into tank. Since it's on the pressure side of things, if that was leaky it should at least make a little bit of pee-pee. It's all bone dry down there and also on top of the sink where the valve handle comes out.

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be

Does it leak if you keep it open for awhile? I just had to replace an R/O faucet that was leaking only when pressed. ...Jim Thompson

Air leak on outflow side of valve.

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guess.

be

Nope. I tried again an hour ago. Ran it for five minutes to see if the bubbling would stop this time (it didn't). Not a spot of moisture anywhere it shouldn't be.

BTW, that print screen program you recommended worked like a champ. I had a situation where I needed to do rapidfire storing with only very few seconds until the procedure had to continue. Doing that via MS-Paint or another graphics program would likely have resulted in cramps.

A hole would have to leak though. Water pressure is the usual 65psi, it only drops (a lot) when the sprinklers are on.

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be

Glad you like it! I'm not quite sure when/where I stumbled onto that program, but it sure does work easily.

For others interested, it's at...

you have a hole in it somewhere or you're lacking water pressure.

Jamie

How about this scenario: A model would be a eductor pump sucking through a check valve. That is, a venturi with sufficiently low pressure to pull in air while there is water flow but when pressure is higher in the pipe than the outside, the check valve shuts, preventing leakage.

The "venturi" could be there at the base of the spout and the "check valve" a torn flap in one of the seals. When there's no flow, static pressure holds it shut. Open the dispenser valve and there's enough flow in that vicinity to suck in some air.

Kind of a reach, I know. ;-)

weird sputtering is probably an air leak. Check/replace any screens or gaskets in the spigot and valve.

Air getting sucked back into a sink faucet is how the aerator works on the regular part of your sink.

A hole in the packing of the valve will suck in air.. A hole in the nozzle will also do that. This is because of the venturi effects, you won't see water coming out of those places but it'll suck air in.

Jamie

if its not the heater and not the water source, is it something to do with the faucet i.e. nozzle?

how does an aerator faucet work?

Mark

It may be making them on the spot. We have a hydronic heating system here, so there are no air ducts for adding a humidifier to. So, I built a water boiler with a ~100 W heating element on a tank of water, with an automatic fill system. (Has a safety shutdown, too, in case the auto fill gets stuck.) It is amazing the amount of crud in the water, it fills the boiler with off-white deposits in days. And, our domestic hot water heaters get full of deposits and eventually have to be replaced. The heat drives the ions out of solution.

Jon

Aha. Now we are getting somewhere. I just have to figure out where, maybe some sort of O-ring.

Although it would surprise me how that's possible with leaking hot some water but who know.

I took apart the old one where the heating element finally gave out after well over a decade. It was clean as a whistle. I guess it greatly depends where the water is coming from. Ours is very low in crud but unfortunately high in chlorine.

That's what Greegor also hinted at, I'll have to try to take that side apart (unfortunately it's a unit, tank with outlet).

:-)

I think Greegor and Jamie have a point, that sort of venturi could be at the outlet. There is not water pressure to speak of on that one because it's always open.

This water heater doesn't have any screens but if may have an O-ring in the outlet.