Quote:
Originally Posted by mjmama
We ran cold water in the showers and facets upstairs until the sputtering stopped. Then, my husband tried the hot water in the sink and it sputtered...turned off hot, then turned on cold and no more sputtering. Next we flushed the toilet and my 3 year old immediatly covered his ears anticipating the horrible noise to follow and...nothing! The toilet just flushed with no loud sounds!
Now the sputtering is limited to hot water only.
I am very grateful to everyone for the advice.
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I'm a plumber. I agree with the plumber who inspected your lines. I think it is highly unlikely that the problem is originating within your home. Water distribution piping is pressurized. If there is a hole, break, or crack on any pipe while under pressure water will spray out. The only way for air to enter the pipes is if water pressure is first shut off and a pipe is cut or broken allowing the air a place to get in.
It may
seem that the problem is only with the hot, but it isn't. The reason that the air bleeds out faster on the cold side is that the water heater is acting like a tank on an air compressor, its giving the air that is introduced elsewhere a place to accumulate and pressurize.
Is your house higher than other homes in your neighborhood? The reason I ask is that air in a water distribution will
eventually make it's way to the highest point in that system.
Not having personally inspected your plumbing, I can only make a guess, but what I suspect is that the water provider had a substantial break in a line that took quite a while to repair allowing a lot of air into the system.
That all said, I have observed only one instance of a water heater causing a problem similar to what you are describing
without a visible leak. To be sure, call your plumber back out and ask him to temporarily disconnect your water heater and connect the hot and cold lines together. Open all the faucets and run the water until the sputtering stops. Give it a few hours (if you can stand the inconvenience) and see if the problem stops. If it does, the problem might actually be the water heater. I seriously doubt this is the problem though.
Good luck!
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