My house has two water heaters. One for one side of the house, the other for the other side of the house.
I was washing my car today in the driveway, at the west side of the house, and noticed towards the end of the wash that the water coming out of the outdoor faucet was WARM. I made sure this wasn't due to sun heating the hose or anything - the copper pipe was warm at the point it entered the side of the house.
Went inside and checked the hot and cold water lines to the west side hot water heater. Both were warm.
Ran some hot water in the laundry room, which is right next to this west side hot water heater for a while, and again went back to the water heater to check the temperature of the cold and hot lines. This time, the hot line was hot, and the cold line was definitely cold.
We've been noticing that even when we have our taps on full cold, the water doesn't really feel cold. And, after finishing washing my car, there were white deposits on the paint and glass indicating that the water had come from the hot water heater.
I looked into one-way valves and thermal expansion issues for hot water heaters, and didn't really find anything conclusive. One way valves usually involve dealing with preventing backwash into the city lines only. But in this case, the water heater is backwashing hot water into my cold lines.
Do I install a one-way valve on the cold water intake to this hot water heater? Do I install a thermal expansion tank on this hot water heater? How do I prevent the hot water from backwashing into the cold water line?
Thanks for your help!
I was washing my car today in the driveway, at the west side of the house, and noticed towards the end of the wash that the water coming out of the outdoor faucet was WARM. I made sure this wasn't due to sun heating the hose or anything - the copper pipe was warm at the point it entered the side of the house.
Went inside and checked the hot and cold water lines to the west side hot water heater. Both were warm.
Ran some hot water in the laundry room, which is right next to this west side hot water heater for a while, and again went back to the water heater to check the temperature of the cold and hot lines. This time, the hot line was hot, and the cold line was definitely cold.
We've been noticing that even when we have our taps on full cold, the water doesn't really feel cold. And, after finishing washing my car, there were white deposits on the paint and glass indicating that the water had come from the hot water heater.
I looked into one-way valves and thermal expansion issues for hot water heaters, and didn't really find anything conclusive. One way valves usually involve dealing with preventing backwash into the city lines only. But in this case, the water heater is backwashing hot water into my cold lines.
Do I install a one-way valve on the cold water intake to this hot water heater? Do I install a thermal expansion tank on this hot water heater? How do I prevent the hot water from backwashing into the cold water line?
Thanks for your help!