Can replacement cartridges fix water hammer?

[Oz_Rich]

Hi all,

We have some terrible water hammer in our house. I've had a plumber come round to try and fix it, to no avail, but I'm not convinced he chose the right course of action. He started by checking the water pressure, securing a few pipes in the roof space which was fair enough, but dismissed my question about installing water hammer arrestors, instead suggesting he change the cartridges in the offending mixer taps. Unfortunately, one of the cartridges was stuck, resulting in the entire tap being replaced at a cost of over $1000 in parts and labour. However, the new cartridges and tap haven't done a thing to stop the pipes banging.

So my questions are;

• Can an old mixer tap cartridge cause water hammer?
• Would replacing it with a new like-for-like cartridge make any difference?
• Is that really what you'd try first ahead of hammer arrestors? Might it depend on the circumstances of the home?

If the answer to any of these questions is "no", I feel I have good grounds to ask for a significant discount, as the plumber seems to have been more interested in getting rid

I've complained to the company about the lack of communication around the completely unexpected blowout in cost. But if the answer to any of these questions is "no", and therefore the plumber's approach was completely off, I feel I have grounds for a significant discount (which I need in order to hire another plumber to get the job done!).

Many thanks for any help you can give... Richard

 

[king of pipes]

We all have our ways of working water hammer can be a tricky one to identify at times if your incoming water supply is quite high ?? Taps,Nrvs, Showers, ballvalves can all cause this problem as can unsecured pipework, if the problem has not been resolved then the I would suggest that you only pay the plumber his call out fee and labour cost trying to find the fault at least you know it's not being caused by a number of things he checked , the replacement of parts is something that you should of given permission to be fitted and agreed to before going ahead ? This has not resolved your problem so in all fairness I would expect a % reduction of some kind most likely the cost of the tap parts and the removal and fitting cost as they were not the issue . Regards kop

 

[RayW]

Can an old mixer tap cartridge cause water hammer? ..... Yes. I recently suffered waterhammer, started off when just kitchen tap hot turned on , but progressed to any tap hot or cold and even when the boiler CH was running. By closing the iso valves one at a time I discovered the problem stopped when the cold feed to the bathroom basin monobloc was off. Threw away the nasty chinese cheapo and fitted nice Hudson Reed. Result silence. Hairline crack in ceramic.