When air is present in your Delaware home’s plumbing, turning on a faucet can cause water to sputter. Although air in your pipes doesn’t cause damage to your house’s plumbing, the rattling and shaking you hear from the faucet and inside your walls can become annoying. You can perform a few easy steps to stop air bubbles and air blasts escaping from your faucets by removing trapped air from your water pipes.
Turn Off the Water Supply
Most homes typically feature two water supplies. The waste water system pulls away water from your residence’s sinks and toilets via pipes that are distinct and separate from the pipes in your mains water system, which brings fresh water to your home. To begin removing trapped air from your plumbing, you must focus only on the mains water system.
Shut down the mains water pipe by turning off the water supply shutoff valve. This ensures that no additional water enters your plumbing pipes, allowing you to clear away the water that remains. Drain the water by connecting a hose pipe to your home’s lowest faucet and divert the water flow away from your residence, which can keep your foundation from getting damaged by excessive water pooling.
Turn On Faucets Throughout Your Home
Once you have drained all the water from your pipes, be sure to turn on the mains water system valve to get water flowing back into your home. Follow this by turning on all the faucets in your residence, making sure that you start at the top of your house and work downward. It is only necessary to open the faucets a half turn to allow the air in your pipes to escape.
After you turn on all the cold and hot water faucets in your house, you should also flush your toilets to clear out the air trapped in your pipes. The idea is to get all water in your house to freely flow, so turn on your washing machine and let it run through a rinse cycle, and make sure that you remember to turn on your dishwasher, as well. Let the water from all faucets and appliances run for 10-15 minutes, until you no longer hear sputtering and spitting from your faucets.
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Turn Off All Faucets in the Correct Order
Once you determine that all the running faucets of your home no longer make noise or spit water, it is important to turn them off. To avoid forgetting any particular faucet, go through your home and turn them off in the order that you had earlier turned them on. It may be easiest to forget the spigots on the outside of your home, so be sure to make a careful sweep of every room and the outside of your residence to ensure that no water flows from any of your faucets or spigots.
If you find that the water in your pipes still sputters when you turn on a faucet, consider contacting an experienced plumber. He or she may investigate the issue and discover an ill-fitting pipe, or a pipe that is not properly sized, somewhere along the line of your plumbing network.
The plumber may also discover a water hammer in your pipes, and removing it typically requires additional work. The sound and force of sputtering water from your faucets can be jarring, but you can easily get air out of your home’s pipes and put a stop to this problem.
After you turn off your mains water system and drain excess water from your residence, turning the water back on and running your faucets and house appliances that use water can remove air bubbles from the pipes. Draining all air from your pipes can also prevent rattling noises from the pipes in your walls, which can bring peace and quiet back to your Delaware home.
Many Delaware residents don’t think about their plumbing systems until noises and other problems cause inconveniences, and scheduling seasonal maintenance on your pipes can keep water running smoothly and silently. Horizon has been providing plumbing services for residents of Sussex County and the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland for more than 40 years. Contact us today for 24/7 plumbing service, competitive pricing, and special senior citizen discounts for members of our Delaware and Maryland communities.