[Nurseyniner]

My front load washer fills using intermittent spurts. My pipes bang and jump, primarily the hot water pipes. The problem has significantly worsened over the last few months. I put water hammer arrestors on the hot and cold water valves between the washer's supply hoses and the water valves. No improvement. I read that decreasing water flow might help so I turned the hot water valve back about halfway. No improvement. I had a plumber out and he said he's never seen such a bad water hammer problem. He said a whole house water hammer arrestor is expensive and may not work. He is consulting another plumber. He wondered about the soleniod in the washer that controls water intake. Does anyone have any advice? With all of this banging, I'm afraid to use the washer - I don't want to have a pipe spring a leak!

 

[Windows on Wash]

Those solenoids are brutal on shut off.

What type of supply lines are going from the washer to the supply line?

 

[concrete_joe]

how old is the washer? when did it start making noise?

 

[joecaption]

Anyone checked the incoming water pressure?
There's no need for more then 60 PSI.
A simple $10.00 gauge set up available at any home center that screws on to an outside garden hose hook up will tell you want the pressure is.

 

[Nurseyniner]

Those solenoids are brutal on shut off.

What type of supply lines are going from the washer to the supply line?

There are grey hoses (looks a lot like a 1/2" garden hose) going from the washer to the supply lines.

About the solenoids, I did some reading and it sounds like when they malfunction, it causes filling problems. I'm not having problems with too little or too much water. I wonder if it's just the way they work and some other factor caused the water hammer to worsen.

 

[Nurseyniner]

how old is the washer? when did it start making noise?

The washer is about 5 years old. If I recall correctly, there was some relatively mild water hammer noise when it was first installed. It seems to have become significantly worse in the last few months.

 

[joecaption]

Check that water pressure.
City or well water?

 

[Nurseyniner]

Anyone checked the incoming water pressure?
There's no need for more then 60 PSI.
A simple $10.00 gauge set up available at any home center that screws on to an outside garden hose hook up will tell you want the pressure is.

I haven't had the water pressure checked but I looked on Youtube today and watched a video about that. Right now our night time temps are -20 degrees - if I turn the outdoor spigot on, could that cause a problem with freezing? I have what looks like an outdoor spigot in the line just above the water meter (in the basement). Could I check the water pressure there and not have to go outside in subzero weather? I also noticed that I do not have a pressure relief valve anywhere that I could see and I do not have a thermal expansion chamber (at least nothing that looks like what I've seen online) with the water heater.

Thanks for the tip about my location. I've added that to my profile.

 

[Nurseyniner]

Check that water pressure.
City or well water?

City water. And I'm less than a mile from the water tower; I'm thinking that the water pressure could be part of the problem.

 

[jmon]

Agree with Joe. Definitely check your water pressure first. Post results. If over 80 psi, you definitely need to look into a prv on your incoming main water line.

Just a suggestion, this will have nothing to do with your water hammer situation; As stated, your washer is 5 years old, time to replace your supply line hoses with new high efficiency ones. Just a good idea to replace them every 5 years. Write the date you changed them right on the hoses.

 

[Nurseyniner]

Agree with Joe. Definitely check your water pressure first. Post results. If over 80 psi, you definitely need to look into a prv on your incoming main water line.

Just a suggestion, this will have nothing to do with your water hammer situation; As stated, your washer is 5 years old, time to replace your supply line hoses with new high efficiency ones. Just a good idea to replace them every 5 years. Write the date you changed them right on the hoses.

Pressure gauge showed incoming pressure of 50 psi, so excessive pressure isn't the issue. I was thinking about the cause of the problem - abruptly stopping a column of moving water. My water heater is at one end of the house and the washer is at the other. I paced it off and there's roughly 75 feet of 3/4" pipe. That's a pretty good amount of water that's moving and then abruptly stopped when the solenoid slams shut. I think I'm going to see what a good sized air chamber/water hammer arrestor costs. I think installing one will be my next step.

 

[mikegp]

Did you/can you check to see if the pipes are properly secured? I had the same issue and tore into my wall to see what I needed to do and it turned out that the pipes going to the hook up were moving around way too much. I secured them and the problem stopped immediately.