PAS1970

I have very low hot water pressure in my house at all faucets: two bathroom sinks, shower faucet and shower head, and kitchen sink. The cold water pressure is fine. About five months ago I noticed the hot water pressure would decrease sometimes, while other times it would be normal. Now it's always low. I've done the following three things attempting to fix the problem:

1. Drained the water heater by attaching a hose to the drain valve, turning the cold water supply off, and letting the water drain out. I noticed very little sediment in the water.
2. Drained the water heater by attaching a hose to the drain valve, leaving the cold water supply on, and letting the water drain out. I noticed very little sediment in the water.
3. Drained the water heater by attaching a hose to the drain valve, closing the cold water supply valve, opening all the hot water faucets in the house and letting them drain. I noticed a small amount of sediment in the bathtub and nothing in the sinks.

I'm going to backflush the system tonight to see if that works. It's looks like the heat-trap nipple on the hot water supply line may be stuck (corroded) shut.

The water heater is a Richmond made in December 1998. I'm on city water.

If anybody can give me any advice, I'll appreciate it. Plumbing is not one of my strongpoints. Thanks........

plumbbum0203

The heat trap nipple is a good place to look. But if you have older galvanized water pipes then this could also be the source. The hot water lines tend to corrode inside before the cold. They will act like the artery in a heart and constrict over time due to calcium build up you may need to replace the lines to each fixture. I would do hot and cold at the same time to save from doing the cold in the future. sometimes just a piece will break loose and slow down the whole system. doing the flush may or may not help ive always replaced just because if it happened once it may happen again later. good luck

PAS1970

The pipes are copper. I think the hot-side heat-trap nipple is the culprit. From the outside the cold-side heat-trap nipple is new and shiney; the hot-side heat-trap nipple is old and rusty. I've owned the house for about 21 months, so I don't know what the previous owners did. But it seems the cold-side heat-trap nipple has been replaced, so maybe there have been problems in the past. Flushing has produced very little sediment, therefore, I don't think sediment is the problem. Thanks for the reply.