Hot water in toilet

[IFIXH20]

Turn off the rec. pump when you turn off the water to the water heater

 

[alienone]

This is a highrise condo, I don't have access to the water heater or pump. I haven't found the water shutoff valve for the unit but I believe there are at least 2 different ones and hopefully hot/cold will be separate. Still settling in

 

[frodo]

high rise condo....

look in hall way..in frnot of your front door..pop the ceiling tile

should be 3 valves..hot,cold. circ

not saying yours is..but mains run in the ceiling,,down the hall,,they would branch off into units

or'look for a access door in the ceiling in your condo

 

[alienone]

there are 2 conspicuous looking panels in the bedroom closet ceiling. Will need to get the super to confirm but that is the only possible place.

 

[frodo]

get a screwdriver...turn the slot...watch your head...a door will open..nice place to stash stuff,,,burglers dont look up

should have valve tag on the handle and a plastic sign that has an arrow and says domestic hot or cold or circ.

 

[alienone]

Thanks all and have a great weekend. Will come back with findings next week.

 

[alienone]

Ok, few weeks and a plumber visit later, it turns out the entire bathroom is connected incorrectly i.e. the cold/hot water pipes were reversed before they were hooked up to the sink, toilet, bathtub. The sink, which I thought was ok, is not. Someone along the line realized there was an issue and reversed the sink connections so that it will seem to work ok. So in the sink, two wrongs made it right. The toilet and tub were left as is. Now the question is, where in the unit are the feeder pipes that were switched and where to break the wall/ceiling. OMG

 

[Mr_David]

where does the water come into your unit.
They are going to take the shortest route to the fixtures.
open a hole under bathroom sink. do they come from above or from below?
Or from the left or right.

you have pex or copper?
They might start at the tub or the sink.

Good luck

 

[alienone]

Thanks Mr_David. If the entire unit was reversed it would have been easier to find where the switch occurred. As it stands, only one bathroom is affected so I think it means there's a manifold somewhere within the unit. The builder should have the plans but he will likely not be the one doing the fix. Even if he is, nothing guarantees that the pipes were ran according to the plan, does it? The water shutoff for the unit is in another bathroom which has no issues. Next time I'm in the unit I'll check the direction of the piping. I'm pretty sure it's copper but will verify that as well. The plumber suggested the best place to start is with a 2x2 feet opening in the ceiling. That scares me as I can already imagine the place with multiple holes everywhere as they search for the problem pipe. Isn't there a way to locate the pipes without the plans? Infrared sensor maybe? making a small hole and use a camera to look inside? Do plumbers use any of those things?

 

[phishfood]

I have an inspection camera that I sometimes use through small holes in walls and ceilings, it has saved quite a bit of drywall destruction.

 

[alienone]

That sounds very useful. I will ask if they have one, or another way to avoid unnecessary damage. Thanks!

 

[alienone]

So, I took a closer look at the main shutoff area for the whole unit which is considerately located in the master washroom under the vanity behind a removable panel. The pipes are not copper so pex is probably right. The main pipes feeding the unit are vertical and so are the pipes leading to individual fixtures. The hot water pipe has 6 stubs, 4 of them red ( 3 are connected, one is just a stub). Interestingly, the other 2 pipes connected to hot water are not red but clear colour. The cold water pipe has 6 stubs (5 connected, one a stub), all of them clear. Now I'm not a plumber, but if I came across those clear hot water pipes somewhere down the line I would be tempted to assume they are cold water. That still doesn't tell me where that happened but at least it makes more sense now. Maybe they ran out of red piping? Attached is a pic of the pipes.

 

[Mr_David]

If it's copper pipe a camera won't tell you which is hot or cold.
You can get a Harbor Freight version for $89 for the cheap one or $189 for a higher resolution onehttp://www.harborfreight.com/digital-inspection-camera-61839.html

Or you can pop for a Ridgid one https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/inspection-cameras

 

[Mr_David]

GOOD find. looks like you have 2 hot that were piped with clear pipe.
Run the cold water in that problem room until one of those gets hot.
Going to be a little trickier to determine which one of those cold lines needs to be switched.

You're just going to have to find the 2 lines where they roll up and over into the bathroom and switch them where they will be the easier to access.

 

[alienone]

ok, so i finally got my password back for this site and can say thank you to all for your help. The pipes were in fact switched and the fix required a few days of work which included breaking the wall and reconnecting the feeds the right way. The problem also existed in the sink but the piping was switched under the sink to 'correct' the issue so I didn't notice anything until the plumber doing the fix pointed it out. I guess whoever did the plumbing initially realized there was an issue and decided to hide the defect with the sink but leave it alone with the toilet because it was harder to correct.