Thumping noise after running hot water

[Dom]

I get a pretty loud thumping noise after I run the hot water, eg, after cle aning dishes. The thump occurs maybe once every 10 minutes. I've done a lit tle Google-research, and I understand that the copper pipes are expanding, then contracting, and somewhere along the line they bang against a stud. Th at makes sense. That's sort of the sound I get. But I still have a few ques tions.

1. The thump continues hours after I've stopped running the water. Eg, I r an the sink at 5:00 and I still get a thump at 8:30. Not as frequent, but s till there. Is this reasonable?

1. I don't know how long I've had this problem, but I don't think it was h appening when I first bought the house some 20 years ago. Is there any chan ce it will just go away in a year or two?

2. My research convinced me that it can not be fixed, I should just live w ith it. Is that the opinion around here?

[Paintedcow]

[Retired]

The last house I lived in for 25 years had a similar problem. When the hot water in the master bedroom sink was run, we got a squeaking sound. Time between squeaks would vary, up and down. Figured it was a copper pipe that was rubbing against a stud, probably as the house, built in 1971, shifted a little. We just "lived with it". Got to where we just "tuned it out", not noticing it every time.

[Tekkie®]

Dom posted for all of us...

Let the guy loose.

[Micky]

When I leave my house, and almost slam the door, about 4 seconds later, I hear a noise. Not every time, but maybe 100 times already. Never right away like one would expect. I always forget to turn around until it makes the noise. Maybe if I turned around in time I could tell where it was coming from.

It seems like a weight is hanging from a string, and when I slam the door, like one pool ball being hit by another, the weight and string pivot away from hanging straight down, they go out a ways, and then fall back and that's when it makes the noise. But I have nothing that could do that.

[DerbyDad03]

r cleaning dishes. The thump occurs maybe once every 10 minutes. I've done a little Google-research, and I understand that the copper pipes are expand ing, then contracting, and somewhere along the line they bang against a stu d. That makes sense. That's sort of the sound I get. But I still have a few questions.

, I ran the sink at 5:00 and I still get a thump at 8:30. Not as frequent, but still there. Is this reasonable?

was happening when I first bought the house some 20 years ago. Is there any chance it will just go away in a year or two?

ive with it. Is that the opinion around here?

Could be an air pressure thing.

I have a storm door and entry door from my house into the attached garage. I also have a cat (and sometimes raccoon) door in the garage door itself. Sometimes - but not always - when I open the storm door the cat (and sometimes raccoon) door will swing with the change of pressure and go "thwack thwack" as it engages the magnet that keeps it in the closed position. Perhaps something in your house is swinging due to a change in pressure caused by the closing door and may not hit whatever it is hitting until the "swing conditions" are just right.

You say four seconds? Maybe it's starting to swing when you *open* the door and the closing of the door has nothing to do with it or maybe it takes both actions to cause the noise. Have you tried one without the other?

[Micky]

It's just that if it's inside, it would have to be pretty loud for me to hear it from outside the house.

No storm door, no cat, no raccoon, no garage, no cat door.

I do have a mail slot in the door, but that makes a higher pitched sound, and couldn't possibly take 2 whole seconds to go up and back again. Actually it hs doors on both sides. The door opens in, so slamming it shut would make the outer door leave its location a little bit**.

** (The mail-slot door on the inside would just be pressed harder against the door and wouldn't move.)

Let me change that to 2 seconds.

I've opened the door without closing it 100's of times. It's rare I close it without having just opened it, except when I'm going back into the house. I've never heard this noise when I go into the house.

It seems like the downspout, something as heavy as that, is moving away from the house and then swinging back, but the downspout isn't loose at all. Or something in the closet just inside the door. I'll look again to see if there is anything loose in the closet, but I think I would have noticed that already.

[Dom]

Micky, I don't understand. Why can't you just stay at the door and open and close it as often as you need I n order to track the noise?

[Micky]

I think it only happened some of the time, once in a row. I've changed to past tense because i realize it hasn't happened for months. So that means I'll never know what it was.

[Dana F Bonnett]

My best guess is that you may have some sediment in the bottom of the WH. After using hot water the flame kicks on and makes steam under the sediment. Try draining and flushing the heater.

[bob haller]

any chance its a echo? at certain times we have that here