bypassing water heater, what's going wrong???

P

Prospective

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Ok, my first time winterizing the water heater. Standard Seaward 6 gallon. I take the cold water inlet hose and the hot water outlet hose off heater and hook them together. No problem.

I pour pink in the water tank (I dont mind the smell or taste so don't get started :-)

Turn on water pump and turn on cold water spouts. Pink comes out all faucets no problem. Turn on hot water facucents and nothing, nada, zilch. Not a peep from my water pump either. What am I doing wrong? Shouldn't I have pressure on the hot water side? Shouldn't pink be comming out the hot water side also??? I know I have pressure at the bypass because when I checked the connection I could get it to spay if I loosened it.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
 
quote:
Originally posted by Gregory Saracco

Is there a kink in the bypass?

Click to expand...


I don't think so, it's that pex tubing so it's pretty tough to kink but I will double check.
 
Do you have a check valve in the line the wrong way?
 
The check valve would be on the cold water side allowing cold water to flow INTO the heater and preventing hot water from flowing back to mix with the cold water. If you are bypassing, you don't need the check valve.
 
I thought about the check valve thing. Here's the deal. My hot water out has a female threaded connector to the water heater. But the cold water in has a snap on connector which connects to a brass fitting which then screws into the hotwater heater. In order to hook hot and cold together, I had to unscrew the brass fitting on the cold water in and screw that into the hot water out. I didn't take a close look at the fitting but started to wonder if it might have a check valve. But even if it did, since I have it in line in the same direction (cold to hot) why would a check valve matter. Also, it appears I have pressure on the hot side of the connection because when I played with it, water started spraying.

Something does not make sense here, but I will check the brass fitting to see it it's straight thru or has some kind of valve it it.
 
The cold water should have a check valve, but if you didn't turn it around during bypassing water tank it should still flow. Try unhooking the bypass (hot water tube only, leave the cold side input to the tank the way it is) and see if water comes out the cold input. This is too easy it has to be something simple.
 
Jim, that's a good idea, I will do that. You're right, it has to be something simple. But those are the things I like blowing half a day on. It's seems like the only way I do anything sometimes... 2 hours for a 15 minute job.
 
Must have included the check valve in the bypass. Couldn't be anything else. I take the lines off the heater and bypass that way.
 
not to hijack the thread, but why is a bypass necessary? couldn't you just leave it all connected and run pink thru everything until it came out the cold and hot faucets?
 
Takes to much pink stuff, pink has to be almost pure (100%) to protect the plumbing. You can't get 100% rid of it in the spring either. Always by-pass the hot water tank.
 
btoran, If you don't bypass the HW heater, you must fill the HW heater with Anti-freeze before it has pressure to come out the lines, thus wasting six gallons. I used compressed air and it never freezes or tastes bad.
 
Everyone thanks for the help. As a follow up in case anyone is curious...

Did as Jim Pend suggested and removed the hot side, sure enough no pressure. It has something to do witht he backflow preventere that I was using as the link between the cold and hot. Even though it should have been going in the right direction, the flow was being stopped. Once I removed it and linked the hot and cold directly, things worked as I expected. Still a bit of a mystery but now that it's working I am not too worried. about it.

Thanks again
 
Could be a problem for you in the spring when you put the check valve back on. Did you try just blowing through it in both directions?
 
Prospective, Glad I could help.
Now as far as pink stuff in the hot water tank, it would take alot more than 6 gallons to get the tank safe, that is also the same reason you can't get rid of it.
Going into the tank, it doesn't replace, it mixes, don't do it, by-pass.
 
ok, so the water heater gets drained rather than filled with pink and the line that usually goes into the cold side of the water heater gets connected directly to the line that usually comes out of the heater with hot water. then hot and cold faucets are opened to drain all water from the system and then pink goes into the water tank. then repeat opening the faucets until pink comes out. is that correct? how much pink should go into a 20 gallon water tank?
 
You hardly need any in the 20 gallon water tank. Run it dry, throw in a couple of gallons, run it through to the faucets. Mostly you're just trying to protect the lines, the tank itself has plenty of expansion room.
 
The size of the tank is not the factor. What's important is how many faucets you have and how long the runs are. I think I only used 2 or 3 gallons for 2 sinks, head, shower, transom shower, 2 wash downs. Start by opening all the faucets to get as much of the water out. Then add 2 gallons. Go to the furthest outlet and open the hot till it runs pink, then cold, then work your way back toward the tank. I like to run all the pink out in case it does freeze. There will be a little left but i like to open the faucets until air spurts out.
 
I do like Michael does, then I turn the pump off and open all the faucets and leave them open---just in case!
 
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