I'm having a water hammer issue and have for the past year or so. The only new addition was the GE HE washer. We have 90psi as water enters the house. I put in a whole house pressure regulator and have it regulated at approximately 70psi. I occasionally see it at 75psi. We have a whole house Pelican water treatment setup in our house because our water is so bad. When we do laundry I get water hammer noise when the solenoid closes. There is no expansion tank on the water system. I installed a regulator on the cold side of my laundry spigot hoping it would help. It is set to 40psi and we still get hammer. When the icemaker shuts off after filling you can hear the solenoid closing hard but no water hammer, same with the dishwasher. There is a 4' tall 3/4" air arrestor tube just as the water enters the house. The laundry spigots have air arrestor tubes attached to the spigots as well, as do most if not all toilets and sinks. When the house was built in 1989 the plumber added them. I'm sure there is further info you need but I'm not sure what, ask and I'll answer. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. TIA Pete
Water Hammer
- Thread starter PeteMag
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I think you could back down the pressure regulator more maybe to 65psi how old are the Hammer arrestors, are they just copper pipe with caps????
Hammer arrestor at the washer is about 1 1/2yrs old and not just pipe with cap, I believe it has a spring and valve in it. Additional adjustable PRV I installed after the washer arrestor this morning on the cold side of the washer spigots I purchased about 3 months ago. We put in a new spigot with arrestor setup when we bought a new W/D set as stated above. All the other "arrestors" are from 1989 and copper pipe with caps. Whole house adjustable PRV in the basement was installed before the water treatment system is about 6 years old.
The arrestors from 1989 aren't working they will fill up with water after time, you can drain down the house and they will fill with air again, or you can install conventional arrestors I think if you are going to use a prv on the cold side that should be 1st then the arrestors, don't forget the hot is basically the same pressure as your house pressure, now you have 40 psi on one side and house pressure on the other (hot side), another thing to check is how well your piping is supported
I have the same problem at some of my fixtures from the 60 PSI constant from my well pump. It is not the pressure as much as a velocity problem. I just close the shut off valves to my washer and toilets to reduce the flow a little and the hammer goes away. Easy fix. Quickly closing a valve when velocity is more than 5 feet per second causes water hammer. Lower pressure or surge tanks don't help much. Just reduce the velocity.
Add an actual water hammer arrestor, 3/4" threaded, If you can for retrofit, put a brass tee in between the laundry hose with the hammer arrestor. The sudden close valve causes the water to crash, and hammer.
a 4' Tube is not a true hammer arrestor.
