Help please!

[Kate the Mate]

My plumbing problem has defeated our plumber and I'm hoping that posting here we might get the help we need to solve our problem. I really hope so, it's driving me crazy!:mad2:

I called the plumber when we had water hammer. The bang is caused by any tap, hot or cold, being turned off or on and we hear it upstairs in our ensuite. He said he thought we should look at the washers in the loo which is what he did, but it didn't solve the problem.

We'd had a new boiler fitted not long ago and plumber wondered if that had had an affect. He thought it might be the flow detector switch, which he changed but that didn't work either.

He spoke to Worcester Bosch and they suggested he fit an anti surge device to the boiler mains inlet. We thought we might have found the answer at last but no, that didn't work either.

We've checked all the toilet valves and have shut off the toilets one by one to see if that helps but that hasn't made any difference. The banging manifests itself only in one shower, our ensuite, and it's the bathroom at the end of the run. Unfortunately we can't isolate the shower because I'm told it has no shut off valves.

Our last resort is that the pipes might be loose behind this shower wall but detecting this will be an expensive option, taking off the tiling to look at the pipes behind. My husband said it's odd that it happens on both hot and cold tap. I know nothing about plumbing so I don't know if he's right or wrong.

When I went to bed last night I could hear the pipes in the ensuite banging as the dishwasher did it's work. It's really driving me crazy.

Has anyone got any advice they can give before we take down the shower wall. My plumber said he doesn't know what to try now and can I live with it? Nooooo, I can't. I'll have to move! Can anyone help?

Many thanks in advance.

Kate

 

[Deleted member 32524]

Pressure reducing valve fitted after main stopcock.

 

[oz-plumber]

Hi Kate,

The problem is most probably with the dishwasher and also the washing machine.

These appliances have solenoid valves for shutting off the water - meaning the bang shut.
( Close abruptly )

When these valves shut off, they can temporarily increase the water pressure in the piping to up to 6 times. That pressure has to be absorbed somewhere in your piping system - hence water hammer.
So I wouldn't go cutting open walls to find if pipework is clipped or not, I would try and remedy the situation by installing a water hammer arrestor or try an old-school trick of running a vertical pipe, capped off at the top. There will be enough air caught in the to op the pipe to act as a shock absorber. It probably needs to be a couple of metres tall.

There are other solutions - if you have copper piping, install a section of plastic with a loop in it.

 

[Alex Knight]

Could also be the shower cartridge, that's what I'd check first tbh

 

[KingDoey]

I second the shock arrestor and pressure reducing valve!

 

[Ric2013]

They mean fit a pressure reducing valve after the stopcock.

If you've had a combi installed and had a copper cylinder before, then turning off a hot tap could cause a shockwave through the cold as your hot water is connected to the cold through the new boiler (to simplify massively: the pipe runs through the boiler and becomes hot in the process).

You're hearing a bang when you turn the tap on as well as when you turn it off?

 

[Kate the Mate]

They mean fit a pressure reducing valve after the stopcock.

If you've had a combi installed and had a copper cylinder before, then turning off a hot tap could cause a shockwave through the cold as your hot water is connected to the cold through the new boiler (to simplify massively: the pipe runs through the boiler and becomes hot in the process).

You're hearing a bang when you turn the tap on as well as when you turn it off?

Thanks for all your advice so far. Really appreciate your advice.

Yes, it bangs with both hot and cold taps when we turn them off or on. It even happens when we turn the en suite shower off or on.

 

[Radioman]

What make is the shower valve?

 

[Kate the Mate]

Now that we don't know. My husband has been following this thread with interest but he's gone to work now. He looked at the fittings on the shower this morning to try and identify it so that I could go and get any necessary parts but there was nothing to identify it. I think it was bought from Nicholls but thats all I know. He said he'll take it apart as soon as he has time but that may be at the weekend. I don't think he even knows how it comes apart! I said I would have a look today to see if I could work it out.

 

[Kate the Mate]

There's a T on the shower so I guess that stands for Triton. Is that any help?

 

[Ric2013]

Not to me. Can you get to the pipework serving the shower and _fit_ isolators? That opens up other options...

 

[jtsplumbing]

There's a T on the shower so I guess that stands for Triton. Is that any help?

'T' on shower valve is Proberly a 'TREVI' shower valve,

 

[Kate the Mate]

Ah, okay. Thanks for that.

 

[Kate the Mate]

Not to me. Can you get to the pipework serving the shower and _fit_ isolators? That opens up other options...

My husband is going to look at it at the weekend when he has more time and I'll take pictures. I'm just trying to amass as much info as I can so that we can try and get it sorted. We'll try any/all of your suggestions until we get it fixed. We have visitors tonight too so they will hear the thump of the plumbing. :-(

 

[Kate the Mate]

Good afternoon all. My husband is off today and has been trying to solve this plumbing problem. First he took apart our shower fitting and replaced with two service valves so that he could repressurise the system. Shower is Trevi CTV exposed. Although the pipes behind are not tightly secured, running any tap in the house induces water hammer inside the boiler now and not in the closed off shower pipes, which is where the noise was coming from originally. The air has been removed by opening the service valves. We couldn't hear water hammer in the boiler before, it always just in the en suite. Now since taking off the shower fitting it's moved. Has anyone got any idea what this could mean?

 

[SimonG]

1. Dont put dishwasher on before you go to bed.
2. Get a gauge on the cold water or fit a pressure reducing valve with a gauge on it so you can adjust the pressure.
3. If that doesnt solve it then fit a shock arrestor.
4. If that doesnt fix it , then start and rip the house to bits to clip all the loose pipes.

 

[SJB]

Change the stopcock, have had it many times where the banging is due to loose jumper.

 

[oz-plumber]

If you're getting water hammer in the boiler, the boiler may not have been commissioned properly.

You could have a faulty component in the boiler, either a valve, sensor or pump

You really need someone who can diagnose faults and service the boiler to make sure that the boiler is not the problem.

There are numerous things in combi boilers that can cause the boiler to make hammer noises.
Some simple, some complex - but whatever - some can be detrimental to the boiler.

 

[Kate the Mate]

We had our boiler man today and he said it was definitely not the boiler that's the problem. It's banging in the pipes going into the boiler and the noise is as bad as ever. He assured me that there will be no damage to the boiler but he couldn't help with cause of the banging.

 

[Radioman]

There's a T on the shower so I guess that stands for Triton. Is that any help?

What's the latest?
You could try these
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252500120573

 

[Kate the Mate]

Thank you, Radioman. The latest is that the shower upstairs is disconnected and there is now no water hammer upstairs. My husband is at work until Saturday so it will stay disconnected until then, then he'll put it back together and we are expecting that the water hammer will be back there again. Thanks for your suggestion. He's gradually working through the list of all your suggestions. Our boiler man said we may just have to take up floorboards but that's really the last thing we want to do. It's so frustrating as it's only started relatively recently.