Popping noise from water heater

Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

05cavalier

New Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Location
delete, account
Hell everyone

Last Friday I had a PRV installed on my house as it didn't currently have one and the water pressure was through the roof. Almost immediately after that (later that night) my water heater starting making popping noises when heating water. Never heard it before, but now I hear it every time someone takes a shower or you adjust the thermostat higher. It sounds like popcorn, with maybe the occasional rock sound.

I tried to flush it for about 5 minutes (kept the cold water supply on and just connected a hose and let it drain for a while. Crystal clear water. I didn't collect any to see if there was small bits of sediment in it, but this water looked so clean you could drink it. After this, the noise persisted so I moved on to draining it.

I shut it off, turned off the cold water supply, opened a faucet in my house, and drained it all out. It only took 30-45 seconds which I was expecting much longer. I turned on the cold water supply expecting to see sediment come out now, and nothing. Still crystal clear water. I let it run for maybe 2-3 minutes before closing the drain valve. I turned the heater back on and again it started making the noise. You can hear the water start to boil with no loud noises, but I'd say near the end of the cycle is when the noises start.

Again this never happened once before the PRV install, and now it happens every time. I don't know why the 2 would be related, but since the water is crystal clear I'm not ruling anything out prematurely.

Any suggestions for next steps?
 
Hard sediments in bottom of tank. You're not going to flush them out.

If it becomes to annoying you'll just need to replace the tank.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SHR
Hard sediments in bottom of tank. You're not going to flush them out.

If it becomes to annoying you'll just need to replace the tank.

I was afraid of that. It's a self cleaning tank (didn't mention that before) but it seems that they still get sediment in them over time and need replaced.
 
Back
Top