Hot/Cold Mixup

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

I have a one year old house that has had a problem that no one seems to be able to solve (including the builder). I have hot water coming out of the cold water taps…after several minutes it will eventually cool off but it never gets ice cold…The system is two 50 gallon tanks that are side by side in the Garage with a circulating pump attached. There has got to be a cross connection somewhere, but the original plumber lost the drawings and no one can figure it out. I’ve ripped out walls and found nothing, so I am assuming that it is in the slab. Is there any kind ofray detection or diagnostic equipment that could be used to figure this out? I need guidance!!! Thanks, Henry C.

[GuestParticipant]

Usually there are not any connections made under a slab. Plumbers that have leak detection equipment have equipment that can trace lines under slabs. Good luck.

[SylvanLMPParticipant]

I had the same problem here in NY where the builders “Plumber” had cold water coming out of a hot water side of a faucet in a 3.5 MILLION dollar home.

Finally out of desperation the builder was forced to call me and We located the problem. Seems his “plumber” installed a check valve backwards on a return line and allowed no provisions for a “heat sink” next to the hot water tank so hot water was flowing backwards into the C/W line and screwing up this isolated section of the system.

[fourth yearParticipant]

Since you have a cirulation system, the hot water pipes are hot all the time. The plumber put cold water pipes in the same ditch with the hot pipes but did not separate them far enough. The hot water is heating the water in the cold pipes and you have to evacuate the heated water before you can get cold water.

[GuestParticipant]

Thanks to all who responded…The check valve and heat sink were the first things that were diagnosed and unfortunately they did not solve the problem…however, there has been much speculation similar to fourth year’s thoughts related to the hot and cold water pipes running together. Is there some kind of diagnostic equipment that could help determine if this is really the problem?

[RodParticipant]

the cheapest way to test is try turning off the recirc pump for a day. if the problum stops then you kmow that it is in the slab. i have delt with this problum befor and solved it by putting a timer on the pump. so then the soil is not heating up all night.

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