water hammer

[spartan]

Hey everyone,

just in the final stages of the bathroom renovations and we are now fitting our new fittings.

As soon as the water came back on we notice shocking, machine gun type water hammer coming from the hot water tap in the shower....you have to hit the cold water in the shower to stop it....

It then cause water hammer else where in the house until it bleeds out.

The only real plumbing chang we have made is to install the new fittings which are all ceramic discs.

The other minor flaw is that we have an apprentice plumber doing the work, a good kid but he hasn't any experience with water hammer.....

Anyone have any experience with this...any relationship with the ceramic discs....

By the way the other symptom is that the shower and bath tap are dripping which I thought would happen with ceramic dics?

[custos]

http://www.builderswebsource.com/techbriefs/waterhammer.htm

[spartan]

It turns out that the installation of the ceramic disc taps was the cause of the problem.

It was interesting that the plumber wanted to go for the ater hammer arrester straight away...I was sitting there saying hangon...the taps are leaking....fix the cause not the symptom.

So I did further research and was told that this is a common problem with ceramic taps, they need to be installed properly, and even experience plumbers make mistakes with them.

Essentially, what the plumber did was install them like regular taps....

What he should have done was....

1. Turn water off.
2. Separate the outer locking nut from the tap spindle, it now looks different to a regular tap.
3. insert the spindle.
4. Turn the water back on.
5. It will probably be leaking...so adjust the spindle until it stops.
6. Put on locking nut.
7. Put on handle etc.

As soon as I told him this...it worked...no more drips, no more water hammer.

[Jacksin]

Can I ask why on earth you chose ceramic disc taps in the first place?

[spartan]

Essentially I went to about five different bathroom suppliers and asked for their recommendations regarding tapware and accessories, I also spoke to a number of people who have bathroom renovations recently. The vast majority of the people I spoke to recommended ceramic disc taps.

Additionally, most of the higher end taps come standard as ceramic disc. Now theat they have been correctly installed, they more than meet my expectations. They don't leak despite the poor condition of the seats in the old plumbing in my house....