Coughing, spitting...air in pipes

[gstettner]

In the last few days our faucets have been coughing and spitting like crazy to get air out of them. Naturally, the water that comes out is nearly white until the air bubbles dissipate. It doesn't relent.

Here's my situation. ~40 year old ranch on basement. Well and pressure tank. Pressure tank readings are normal. I have a softener and green sand (I think) iron filter. 50 gallon electric hot water heater.

We also have a loop geothermal furnace, which has a--I think it's called--desuperheater, which preheats the water by running the cold water through the geo unit to pick up any excess heat there before dumping the water into an auxilliary 40 gallon water heater, which, essentially, stores the preheated water before feeding it into the main water heater.

The 40 gallon auxilliary water heater is cheap and gave up the ghost. So we could figure out what we wanted to do, for now, we just bypassed the entire desuperheater thing, altogether, and took the cold water right into the 50 gallon heater.

Shortly after they did that, a couple of weeks ago, we started getting hammering when faucets were turned off and on. Now we have no hammering, but a bunch of air in the lines.

What does that sound like?

 

[IFIXH20]

If/When the plumbing system was opened to connect 50 gal.WH air was introduced into the plumbing system. If this is the case , the system need to be bleed proper

 

[speedbump]

It could also be a coincidence. Do you know if you have a check valve up by the storage tank? If you do, you could have a hole in your drop pipe in the well which is draining the pipe allowing the air to take it's place. Then the pump starts and pushes the air into the tank and plumbing.

If you do have the check valve, remove it. If your pump goes on and off without you using water, it's the hole in the pipe. Your pump will have to be pulled and the pipe replaced.

 

[Retroloco-LJ]

If/When the plumbing system was opened to connect 50 gal.WH air was introduced into the plumbing system. If this is the case , the system need to be bleed proper

Agree with the above. Bleed your pipes to ensure trapped air escapes and that should help.

Retroloco-LJ

 

[RichardHilliard]

you may experience this problem with the anode rod in the heater. It is called gassing.

Do you have a water softener? magnesium anode rods dissolve faster with a water softener and should be replaced with aluminum.