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Toilet Fill Valve Causing Water Hammer

  
  
  

toilet ballcockI visited a customer's home yesterday after she complained about water hammer. Water hammer is a loud banging noise caused by a shock wave when the flow of water is abruptly stopped. Electric valves, such as washing machine valves. You can also get water hammer if you manually shut off a valve, for example if you slam you hand against the knob on a faucet. Here is an article on installing water hammer arrestors.

That isn't what I found at the customer's house. Instead, of a loud "banging" of the pipes, I found a repeated rumbling noise, almost like a machine gun. The vibration was enough to drive anyone crazy. This turned out to be a toilet fill valve that wouldn't shut off completely. When someone would flush a particular toilet, the water would refill in the tank as normal, but the fill valve wouldn't stop and consequently let water flow down the overflow tube and into the flush valve. The sound was the water repeatedly being turned on and off by the defective valve. This occurs more often with the old-style ballcock, the rod and float, than the newer style.

 A simple job of replacing the old-style toilet ballcock with a new toilet fill valve solved the problem.

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