Comments on: Water hammer

By: eric j little

eric j little — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 15:43:22 +0000

so how do you stop it from occurring?cause i sleep uner pipes tat do exactly that but i have no idea how to keep it from happenning

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 08:27:50 +0000

You’re half-right: the water-hammer described in the post is not the water hammer that happens in steam pipes.

The water-system kind, can happen anytime a valve shuts too quickly – the pipe leading to washing machines is a notorious culprit. Fix it with a bladder tank, like the 1st comment.

Water-hammer in steam pipes is something completely different. Like you said, it’s caused by puddles of condensed steam (i.e., water)in the pipe.

But it doesn’t get pushed anywhere. It gets turned into steam – all at once – by the sudden contact with the next batch of steam from the boiler. Since the steam produced takes up a lot more room than the original puddle… it’s like a mini-explosion in the pipe.

This I know from working with plumbers. If you spend any time in the basement of old, poorly maintained steam-heat buildings, you’ll notice that hammer doesn’t move down the pipe, from one elbow to the next. It repeats in the same spot.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:18:38 +0000

Actually, no. Water hammer is caused AFTER a period of time when there’s been no steam activity and the steam that was left dormant in the lines have condensed to water. Then, when steam is introduced to the lines again it makes a slug of water by pushing the condensed water ahead of it. This slug of water hits every joint at every change of direction at the velocity that the steam is driving it and creates a hammering effect.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:52:27 +0000

Ah, the penultimate return of “hammer time”. That rocks!

By: ernie

ernie — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 03:56:39 +0000

Water hammer problems?????
Install an air tank bladder to cushion the shocks.
So simple–so effective