I have lived in this house for 5 years and have never heard the pipes rattle when shutting a faucet off until this week. Do any of you have any suggestions on how I can eliminate this noise and identify the cause? Thanks for your help.
There is a line device plumbers can install to "soften" or buffer the shutoff on toilets. It might work. Does anyone know what they call them?
One particular faucet?? All of them?? Do toilets shutting off do it??
Jim
"Ace" wrote in news:6QzVb.207770$nt4.980911@attbi_s51:
Sometimes there is an air filled section of pipe that absorbs the "hammer" of the pipe. In some cases it's just a section of pipe. In others it's an "Anti-Hammer device". Either way, the air compresses when the water suddenly is turned off. Without it the pipes move and bang into each other or the framework of the house causing the banging sound.
In some cases the air chamber can get filled with water. You can turn off the water to the house and open the faucets to drain the water. This lets the water drain out of the air chamber. When you turn the water back on the hammer should be gone.
NJBrad
Hmmmm. I wouldn't expect that Moen single handle to cause noises. but I guess a cartridge near failure might do it. Another possibility is that the washer in a shutoff valve for that sink is loose. Since it began all of a sudden, I would rule out loose piping and the need for an "air chamber" device. Jim
A common problem in older homes where piping is mounted directly onto the house construction carpentry with U-clamps, instead of being suspended with hangers, or padded with stand-offs, etc.
The noise (or "water hammer"-ing) derives from dynamic pressure, explained this way: consider water rushing thru a pipe to the faucet, and then when the faucet is shut-off the moving water must stop, but has the backed up force of all moving water that comes to a halt. Water cannot be compressed, so there is ever-so-little bit of expansion and compression of the pipes themselves which is audible .. or rattles.
Many contractors installed what are called "risers" in piping to combat this anomaly. Wherever possible to achieve at least a foot of vertical piping in a run of water plumbing, there will be a column of compressible air in the riser itself, but when the rush of water is shut-off, the dynamic pressure of the water will be absorbed by the riser column of air ... no rattle. Occasionally, water may need to be cut off, and the cap at top of the riser be opened to blow out any water, then replace the cap tight followed by turning on the water supply again.
Modern plumbing with plastic piping, and properly slung or mounted with cushioned standoff padding does not rattle.
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