Plumber Help

[Mead]

I was gone on vacation last week and came home to no hot water. My roomate and the lady downstairs said it had been like that all weekend. Our landlord is gone for a week so I figure i'll go do some "Man Work" and try to fix the problem myself. Thing is I dont know what would be causing this.
What happens is when you turn on the hot water it makes a weird creaking noise, sprays out some water then spits a couple times and slows to a trickle or stops completly. The cold water works fine, and I dont think that this sounds like a pilot light problem, since last time I had a pilot light go out I still had water come out from the hot water pipes but it was just cold.

Any suggestions?

[howste]

Sounds like maybe the hot water pipe is clogged somewhere. There also should be a valve that shuts off the hot water at the water heater. Maybe it got turned off?

[Mead]

I'll look for a valve when I get home. Its possible one of the construction workers next door turned it off or something. My landlord is building a house right next to mine and the construction guys are in our basement running hoses and extension cords all over

[Knothead]

I'm with Howste. It sounds as though somebody shut the outflow valve on the top of the heater.

oops me no read too good!

bet it is the valve.....

[Mead]

Now ive just gotta find where the water heater is in this basement. My landlord and 4 other tenants all use it for storage and assorted junk. Not to mention all the stuff thats piiled up over the years from people that arent there anymore.

[swamp-fox]

Maybe the tank is about empty. IF someone (constuction workers or someone on lower level than you or turned off main supply line but left some other valve open and drained all the water out it will take couple minutes to fill up the water heater and they possibley burned out elements also from no water in tank. Or check the areator on the faucet they get full of lime and deposits where the water won't come out either If its spitting and such sounds like bunch of air in line too me though.

Need more input.
How long did you leave faucet on ??

swamp

edit: re read post and if its been like that all week then tank would have water so I would guess deposits in pipes and valves. I cleaned out my water heater last year and I got about a gallon of lime and junk out of it and it's only 4 years old.

[Mead]

How would I go about doing that?
Just turn the valves off and unscrew pipes?

[caddmannq]

You might be able to back-flush the tank/pipe, by using the cold water pipe. First you have to make sure the gas/electricity to the heater is off. Then close the cold water to heater valve & make sure the hot water out valve is open. Open the tank drain. Rusty gunk & lots of water should drain out all over, so a hose from here to a drain is a good idea unless there's a floor drain close by.

Then go cap your kitchen faucet so no water can come out. Open the cold faucet, then open the hot faucet. But if you have seperate hot & cold faucets, you must connect them end to end with a hose as the cap won't work!

This should force cold water backwards through the pipe thru the tank, and down the drain.

Remember to undo all this before you light off the heater again, and let the tank fill all the way by venting through a hot faucet for a while. You can also vent through the pop-off valve on the tank, but if it clogs open, it might be trouble to get it shut off.

[swamp-fox]

As cadd said there is a drain on water heater at the bottom. Will need to hook hose to it and let it run outside (turn off heater first of course) and shut supply line valve, open kitchen (hot side) faucet and let the tank drain. If you don't want to do all the backflushing just let it drain and then turn on supply valve few seconds at a time to stir up the rest of the junk in the bottom you can also just go shut kitchen faucet and turn supply valve back on and the pressure will push out plenty more trash that wouldnt just flow out. Next take areator's off of the sinks and clean them out. The screens prob be clogged youll see all the nasty lime and stuff and prob want to buy bottled water from now on.lol Either replace screens or clean very good. Might as well do showerhead's and all faucets while your'e at it

swamp

PS: Mine wouldn't just drain, the cleanout-valve was so clogged even after opening it all the way nothing would come out I had to turn water back on and tap on the valve to break some junk loose to get it flowing