this is exactly what happened to mine. THANK YOU for showing this. I pulled it out with my leatherman.. its under warranty so im half tempted to just ask them to replace the entire thing
Thank you so much! This was our problem. Pulled that little sucker out and we have water flowing again. Thankful it was such an easy fix and that we found your video.
Looking at those flexible H&C water lines, what I found interesting was the fact that both water lines were installed with a loop, effectively forming their own heat traps. No need for those mechanical heat traps. Still a good educational video!
It wont stop lost heat from conduction by just having them in a loop. It will help w/ convection to some degree, but not over a long period of time. OVer time the system will simply lose heat further down the line as the water conducts from hot to cold. The only way to really stop it is to have a stop valve that physically keeps the water in.
@@vidfreak56 How do people compensate for thermal expansion then with what are essentially check valves put on the water lines? Do they just rely on the T&P valve always doing its job?
The exact same thing happened to my GE but found this video after I pushed that damn ball down again. Thank you for confirming sir! I have full blast 🚿 now!
Thank you! This was also my exact issue. Pulled the cold water line off and was like "wtf is this little ball thing sitting there". Pulled it out and we have hot water pressure again!
Dude I love you right now because this is exactly what is happening to me!!! And I was wondering why and if that ball being on top was normal! Man thanks
I found the nipple with the trap valve was screwed into to outlet side. worked like that for a couple years& then apparently the flaps got jammed . Tore out flaps and reinstalled .
Had those balls get out of the heater and got stuck in 3/4X1/2 inch tee in the wall Restricting the flow in a master bathroom everywhere else in the house was fine
The troubleshooting for that must have been fun ... Even once you figured out it was the ball, the whole being on the wrong side thing would have even driven a patient person crazy if they've never seen it before. Good job and nice tip
Good vid.... would like to ask the same question applied to the hot-water side. For the hot water side, the ball design is opposite of the cold water design. The "ball" on the hot water side is made of Teflon. Teflon is "heavier" than water. The ball "sits" on the seat. So when there is no hot water draw, the ball sits on the seat, and it keeps "heat in". When you open a hot water faucet, flow goes "up" inside the nipple, and it should "lift" the ball off its seat. ( By the way, this is opposite the cold water side, where a polyprolyne ball is used that is lighter than water, and it seats "upward", and opens "downward"). Here's my possible problem---> I intend to install a recirc pump, like on this system....attached to the hot water nipple---> ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Lqnhv_dJEXc.html There are a LOT of comments ( particularly for RHEEM heaters, like shown here....) that adding a pump DOESN'T WORK, as the heat trap interferes. Are there any guys viewing this to confirm?...and to anyone, including the vid poster here....I also got word about how difficult it is to remove the nipple. These are very thin-walled ( with the plastic insert)....and many have crushed the nipple in an attempt to remove. Seems they are installed very tight at the factory...making this worse. Any hints here too ? Thanks all.
My house has a passive HW recirc system (no pump, just works on gravity) and it works great. In the video you can see the return line comes down the front of the heater and ties in by the drain valve. So only the outlet heat trap valve is in the flow loop.... and it doesn't seem to interfere. I have not had the outlet side apart.... so I cant say for certain if the ball is in there, or not.
@@diychicken7279 ...thanks for the reply. To be more clear, the system I intend to install places a pump on the hot water nipple, and the pump would pull water out of the tank...toward your home use-point, and back to the heater via the existing cold water line ( via moxing valve under the sink)....that's how these pump systems work..it assumes you don't have a dedicated and separate cold return line ( there is a mixing valve under the sink as the link shows). These pumped systems seem to work on hot water nipples without an internal heat trap, or work with a flapper style heat trap,....but "Seem" not to work on Rheem tanks that often use the ball-style internal heat trap. Anyone else here care to chime-in?
@@diychicken7279 i just had to troubleshoot a water heater that had this exact issue! GREAT VID! i just hate those green pencil neck geeks who come up with the dumbest "theory" that looks good on paper, but in the real world causes more drama than imaginable. i'm sure so many people who are less than intelligent will force the uneducated homeowner to just replace the water heater and be done... sucha sad situation, but spurs the economy at the expense of an unknowing and honest homeowner left to the mercy of their own ignorance.
Wil Ferch I installed a rheem a few months ago where I noticed that the nipple had a heat trap (my bradford white didn’t have one and the Grundfos works as it should) and when we added the new recirc pump the comfort valve worked without issue. I just went to add the Watts branded version of the pump to a year old rheam and the comfort valve isn’t functioning properly. There’s a video on how to troubleshoot whether or not the valve is working but I’m also going to go back and check to see if the heat trap has a flapper I can remove. I assume it’s possible to remove the plastic insert from the nipple but it seems risky.
@@goosetv8100 ... first thing tio check is the mixing valve under the sink...if it's working properly. To check---> 1 . Close the angle stop valve for the cold water below the sink. 2. Open the cold-water faucet. 3. Check that when you turn on the cold-water faucet, the flow of cold water gradually decreases and stops as the bypass valve closes. 4. Check that when you turn on the hot-water faucet, hot water begins to flow quickly. If that is OK....then YES....look at the heat trap on the hot water side. It may be a flapper or it may be a ball-in-cage design. It is a plastic insert in the metal pipe nipple and may be hard to remove. If a flapper....maybe long needle nose pliers. If a ball-in-cage....then maybe a pencil soldering iron to melt the cage piece and try to get it out. A pain. For the Rheem that worked....what kind of trap did you see?...a flap or ball?
Yes, I am having random knocking. While trying to pick out the ball, I accidentally pushed it back down, and the knocking is gone. I plan to flush it out next time when the ball comes up and causes knocking again. My thread is too tight to un-do.
