Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Water Leak In A Slab House

Reno is correct. I’m not a plumber but have identified and fixed leaks under slabs and under parking lots. Those leaks usually do not show visible water puddles. Start with the leak detector (star or triangle in the center of the needle on meter) and determine / confirm which line has a leak

if he is losing pressure only in the kitchen it aint a leak . if it's a leak he will have to reroute all the hot water lines not just to the kitchen
if the pressure relief valve is working a electric water heater will not explode unless it's old a rusted out . then it'll just bust and leak .

imo from what it sounds like the air is coming from the main supply line and some thing is part way stopped up .

i fix a hell of lot of leaks it dont have to be leaking much and you can tell right at the water heater if its on the hot water side.

lot of times you can hear/feel the water moving in the pipe . if you dont use or you leave the hot water off for a while the cold side will get warm up the pipe if its not leaking.. you can also turn the water nearly off going to the water heater and the pressure will make a noise as it moves through the cut off .

How else would he loose pressure if it doesn't have a leak? Its loosing pressure at the sink because its the line feeding the sink... Just like if it were a service line with a significant leak, the whole house would be affected

pretty simple a 3/4 " line dont care where the leak is you'll lose it to ever faucet . you got one hole coming out of that water heater . you got a leak you lose pressure ever where on the hot side . really the pressure should be shitty ever where cold and hot .

Its a significant leak if he's getting air and a drop in pressure but it doesn't mean the whole house is affected... If I'm in the shower, I have no clue my old lady cuts the sink on to wash dishes that's why I'm pretty confident in saying, the hot line that feeds the kitchen sink is leaking..

The OP already had this figured out, he was just asking advice on locating the leak and the aldeer part timers come out of the wood works giving bad advice... Its a pretty straight forward problem that I've tried to explain

i dont know that he is losing pressure , he may be losing volume

just means you got good water pressure to start with . if no cut off valves or closed it a open system .
, matters none if it hot or cold it's still the same water under the same pressure .

Let me give you a few details that I left out. And one thing from today:

1. There is no wet spot in the house or in the yard and nowhere that I can see water would be going unless it's being absorbed into the ground under the slab.
2. The faucet had been dripping on the cold side so I thought there might be a problem with the valve on the hot side too, and maybe both sides were bad. So rather than buy the parts and fix a cheap faucet I decided to go and get another one and replace it. So after I replace the faucet the pressure on the hot side is still low. And the air in the line is still there.
3. Today when I got home from work I went to the water meter and watched for the wheel to turn. It was not turning at all. I got my son to turn the water on to just a drip and was able to see the will move very very slowly. So when I asked him to turn the water on halfway, you could see the wheel turning pretty good even though it was slow. So I'm not sure if I have a leak and I don't see how I could have a leak if the wheel is not turning on the meter.
4. I think I may have an idea of where the air is coming from in the faucet even if there is not a leak. On my hot water supply line the tap for the dishwasher is before you get to the valve for the sink. So I'm thinking when we run the dishwasher all of the water from the hot side of the faucet runs down into the dishwasher. I'm not sure if that's possible.
5. Last night when I change the faucet I could not get the hot water supply valve to turn off completely so I had to turn the water off at the meter. I also noticed when I tried to turn the water off at the supply valve it was leaking around the valve stem and the pack nut. I'm not sure if something is wrong with the valve Maybe some calcium deposit or something is stopping the valve up and cutting into my water pressure or volume going through the valve. Given the fact that there seems to be no leak this may be the most likely Theory.
6. I think I should also mention that I drain my water heater Last Summer and had what looked like coarse ground salt coming out of the hose. There was maybe a handful of it on the ground after the tank drained. So if I do have minerals build up in my tank maybe they are going through the hot water line and out to the kitchen sink. This would also make the clogged supply line valve Theory more believable.

go to your water heater and ease up on the handle on the relief valve and let the air out of the tank . see what you got .

any time you work on a water line all kind of junk will break loose . i work on things here i take the aerator off the kitchen or bath sink both if i replace a water heater before i turn the water on at them

How old is the dishwasher? It has a check valve built in that could be bad... Try turning the water off to the dishwasher and see if that makes a difference

Sorry, what I meant was that when we run the dishwasher, maybe the water from the faucet drains down to the dishwasher. But I've never had that happen any where else. Not sure if it's possible.

It's sounds like Bro Turtle is narrowing it down...

Reno, I'm not trying to argumentative so with all due respect I have to disagree with you on this comment. A water heater will in fact over heat if the thermostat goes bad or if an element shorts to ground. The temps that you gave are for properly working thermostats and elements. And a HW tank will not blow up if this condition exists because they are designed to relieve the pressure if this happens. We had this exact same scenario last week at my grandfathers with the exception of low volume (which can easily be explained by sediment getting kicked up and stopping up the faucet). His was spitting and sputtering pretty violently when you turned on the hot water side and it was affecting one leg worse than the others. He had a runaway thermostat that was, in fact, causing the water to overheat. We changed it out and fixed his problem.

This is why I asked how old the unit is. Years of sediment buildup was what I figured might cause the issue.

The low pressure in the faucet is what's leaning me away from the culprit being the water heater.. Usually if its a heater, the whole system is affected. Sediment is usually just the hot side on multiple fixtures and pressure (which will be high instead of low) affects the whole house. In my experience (especially with heater less than 20 years old) is the redundant safety systems won't allow a heater to over heat.

If sediment is an issue, mostly every fixture will push some out on the hot side. An easy test for that is to leave the water on and hook a hose to the drain cock and cut it on.. You'll know quick what is in the bottom of it.

A few question i have now is when the faucet was replaced, where the supply lines changed too? I've seen the flexible supply line dissect on the inside, which will cause a pulsating in pressure and/or a loss of pressure. A faulty check valve is a dishwasher can also allow it to draw air into the system as water rushes past going to the sink.


Not to discredit you and no disrespect westflgator, I'm just speaking from years of daily occurances like this..

I did not change the supply line with the faucet. But I'm going to change the valve this weekend, so I can get a line also.

Today, I was talking about this with my wife and mentioned how strange it is that it's only one fixture. She told me the kids bathroom faucet and tub also have the air in them. I never go in there, so I didn't know about it. But when I checked it, there seems to be good pressure there.

So maybe it is the valve in the kitchen causing low pressure. And maybe the heater is causing the air in the line. But I don't understand how steam from the heater could get trapped in the line at tthe fixture. It seems the steam would condense and become water.

But I am going to drain the water heater again this weekend. Maybe that will help a little.

You can turn tour water heater off at the breaker and see if the air goes away

It sounds to me like you are narrowing it down...

A water tank with a bad air control valve can cause a similar problem but it would be on hot & cold, and you also clarified that you are on city water, so that takes this scenario out of the equation.

You said your meter is not running when all the water is off, so that eliminates a leak causing the problem as some have suggested.

That pretty much leaves an overheating hot water heater. It can affect one leg more than others based on the location of that leg and how much the water is used versus the other legs, but like I said in an earlier post it should affect all of them to some degree which you have now clarified that you are having the same issue in other locations. So it's beginning to make more sense as you give us more details.

PM me if you have an Ohm meter and need help troubleshooting the HW heater.

I fix leaks almost daily . I still don't understand how you are getting air in the line .posotive pressure in the line still won't suck large amounts of air into the line assuming that the psi of the surrounding air isn't greater than the psi inside the pipe .