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O’Shea help a client to solve their water hammer problem in Glen Iris
TRIGGER WARNING
Anyone who has dealt/battled with this issue may become triggered by the phrase/plumbing issue called water hammer.
Water hammer can occur on any property, at any place at any time. It may happen all of a sudden or you may have been dealing with it since you moved in. It can keep people awake at night and it can go completely under the radar. Water hammer is a plumbing issue that can sometimes lead to bigger issues, so it’s often best solved as soon as it presents itself.
There is a blog on the O’Shea Plumbing website explaining exactly what water hammer is and how it occurs, which you can READ HERE. But in a nutshell water hammer is a result of a pressure surge that travels through a piping system and the fluid in motion is forced to change direction or stop suddenly, causing a thud, knocking or bang. It can be loud or quiet and occur at different times of day or night, but most often when a water fixture is turned on or off.
People who have dealt with water hammer have said it is horrible and can wake people multiple times a night. Imagine getting up for a quick drink of water during the night, and you end up waking everyone home due to the loud noises from the pipes!
James from Glen Iris was one of these poor souls who had enough of dealing with the noise and contacted his local Melbourne plumber.
Daniel (an O’Shea plumber) attended James’ property and found that the hammer was not occurring by the most common cause of high water pressure (anything over 500KPA) as there was a limit valve already in place and pressures were tested which read 500KPa.
So Daniel asked the client some questions about when they hear the sound most and which taps create the sound, to which he discovered that the washing machine stop tap was old and would always make the hammer sound. With a little investigative work, Daniel was able to isolate the problem to particular plumbing fixtures.
Daniel ran a few tests to check exactly where the hammering was occurring. He had the washing machine stop tap open and got the kitchen sink to create the hammer, he then went and isolated the stop tap (turned it off). With a few simple questions and adjustments to the system, Daniel was able to assist stop the hammering issue, and James could live peacefully once again.