My front loading washer fills in intermittent spurts. Every time the water stops, my pipes bang and jump - primarily the hot water pipe. I have installed water hammer arrestors on both hot and cold supply lines (as directed, right where the supply lines join the intake hoses) without improvement. In another post I saw, someone suggested 'throttling back' the hot water. The supply valve turns one full revolution to open it all the way, so I turned it back 1/2 revolution. No improvement. I have had a plumber out and he said he's never seen this problem as bad as mine. He's not sure even a whole house water hammer arrestor will work. He's consulting another plumber. Any suggestions?

your water pressure might be too high.
if you lower it to no more than 45 PSI the problem should go away..

Check to see if the filters in the hoses or at the machine connection are partially clogged with debris, this can cause the same problem.

IF individual arrestors do not work, a whole house one will NOT either.

After looking at a few videos on Youtube and checking out some online info, I'm inclined to think water pressure is part of the problem. Someone told me to connect a pressure gauge to my outdoor water spigot to measure the pressure, but I'm concerned about water freesing in the line - we're having daytime high temps in single digits and lows around -20. There is something that looks like an outdoor spigot in the copper line near the water meter in the basement. Can I check the pressure there?

The manual to the washer suggested to check that if the machine is filling slowly (which it is not), but I'm willing try it as soon as I can get someone to help me move the washer. I do have really hard water and there could be mineral deposits.

The arrestors are what I have seen described as 'mini arrestors.' I read where a guy put 2 of the mini arrestors on the supply line and it worked. After talking to several people and taking my location, city water, etc. into consideration, I believe I may have high water pressure (have to check it yet). I'm thinking with high pressure, a bigger 'shock absorber' might be of some help, but so would getting the pressure checked and having it regulated to an appropriate pressure. Thankd for the feedback.



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to one of the arrestors. Unscrew the hose to the washing machine and attach the gauge. Turn on the stop valve and see what the gauge reads.

YOu can test it anywhere, but you don't have LEAVE the gauge on the valve. Just screw it on, turn on the faucet, read the pressure, turn off the faucet, and remove the gauge. Voila, no "freezing of water in the line".

Static pressure, which is what you are concerned about is the same EVERYWHERE in the house, except for a slight loss, or gain, due to changes in elevation, so you can test at ANY faucet that has a hose thread for the gauge.

I bought a pressure gauge - Pressure gauge showed incoming pressure of 50 psi, so I don't think excessive pressure is the issue. I was thinking about the cause of the problem - abruptly stopping a column of moving water. My water heater is at one end of the house and the washer is at the other. I paced it off and there's roughly 75 feet of 3/4" pipe. That's a pretty good amount of water that's moving and then abruptly stopped when the solenoid slams shut. I think I'm going to see what a good sized air chamber/water hammer arrestor costs...

I have a utility sink right next to the washer. I looked at the pipes in the basement - there's a short Y where the supply to the sink splits off from the supply to the washer. I attached the gauge to the faucet in the sink and got 50 psi.

Thanks - I wasn't sure if, after I shut off the faucet and took the gauge off, there would be any water remaining that could freeze.



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Then the 'hammer' is being caused by something other than high pressure. I would check the washing machine for proper operation.

My above post stopped the same problem in my own house. It wasn't hammer caused by the lack of an arrestor, it was debris in the filters screens of the washer. It sounded like water hammer, but once the screens were cleared, the noise stopped.