Indoors and over several days. For a plumber or similar technician/s. A performance in which is not a play. The plumber is not play-ing. The pipes and the water and the system. On the occasion that one is not working properly.

ACT I.

The first thing to check is the water pressure in your house. You can buy a pressure gauge for this at most hardware and home improvement stores. Attach the gauge to the cold water outlet for your washing machine. Some water will spill out of the washing machine hose when you remove it, so hold a towel under it. Turn off the water for anything in the house that uses water. This includes all the faucets in the house, ice makers, reverse-osmosis type water purifiers, and make sure the toilets aren't filling. Any water running in the house may cause an inaccurate reading on the gauge. Turn on the water faucet that the gauge is attached to, and then read the water pressure on the gauge. After the test turn off the water and disconnect the gauge. Some water will spill out of the gauge when you remove it so hold a towel under it when you remove it. The pressure reading you get from the gauge should be 60 PSI or less. Pressures higher than 60 PSI can be the source of the noise problem. But just as important, water pressures higher than 60 PSI can cause a lot of other plumbing problems too. So if the pressure is higher than 60 PSI you need to fix that first. The solution for high water pressure is to install a pressure reducing valve on the pipe that brings water into your house. Pressure reducing valves may also be called "pressure regulators" or "pressure regulating valves" depending on the brand of valve and where you buy it. If you already have a pressure reducing valve it is probably broken. They tend to break or wear out after about 10-15 years of service. You can try adjusting it to see if it is just set wrong, however be prepared for the need for an immediate replacement if you do this. If one of the parts inside the pressure reducing valve is broken, the valve may jamb closed when you try to adjust it. If this happens you will need to replace the valve immediately. To adjust the pressure on the valve you turn the bolt that protrudes from the bell shaped part of the valve see photo below. When selecting a new pressure reducing valve make sure you get a brass-body model similar to that shown in the photo below. If the water pressure is less than 50 PSI, then the next thing to check is for loose pipes that may be bumping each other, making noise. In the case of loose pipes the sound will usually become much louder as you approach the source. In one instance a tutorial user wrote me to say that he discovered that the problem was a backflow preventer that wobbled when the irrigation system was running and bumped the side of the house. So start by listening for a sound source and looking for anything loose. It would be frustrating to spend tons of money trying to fix what you thought was a water hammer problem only to discover the fix was to stuff a 50 cent piece of foam between two pipes. When water moves through a pipe it makes noise. Although it might seem to be a smooth flow, the water inside the pipe actually churns and tumbles as it moves through. The normal sound of water moving through pipes is a steady, even sound. The best way to know what it sounds like is to go turn the bathtub water on full blast, then go to other rooms of the house and listen. Don't let the tub overflow. Some newer bathtubs don't use enough water to make the pipes "sing" so you may have to turn on several faucets at the same time to create enough volume. The sound you will hear is the normal sound of water flowing through the pipes. If that is the sound you are hearing that is bothering you, then unfortunately, there is little you can easily do about it. Water makes more noise as it moves faster through the pipes. Replacing the pipes with larger pipes will reduce or even eliminate the noise you can hear. But that is a huge undertaking. A continuous thump, thump, thump noise, consisting of evenly spaced thumps when the water is running may be caused by a under-size water meter. The noise may also be a tapping sound. The noise may appear to come from the water heater as the tank amplifies the sound. Check the water meter, you will likely hear the noise coming from it. A pipe that is changing temperature will clunk as it expands or contracts. The noise results from the pipe suddenly shifting position. This is common inside a house when hot water is turned on. The hot water flows into the cold pipes causing them to expand. But this temperature change related noise may also occur in less expected times and locations. For example a water pipe that supplies irrigation water may pass through an attic or crawl space where it may get hot on a warm day. When the irrigation comes on cold water is pulled into the pipe, causing it to contract and make noise. The key to pipe expansion/contraction related noise is that the clanking noises are not uniformly spaced, they occur randomly. The noise is generally noticeable but not loud. The noise occurs soon after water is turned on someplace and stops after a minute or two as the pipes reach the new temperature. Installing insulation on the pipes may help reduce the noise. Loosening straps that hold the pipes in place may also reduce the noise by allowing the pipe to slide easier as it expands and contracts. Often there is little you can do to completely eliminate this type of noise and it is something you will just have to live with. Air in the pipes can cause an awful lot of noise. It can be much worse to listen to than true water hammer. The noise of air in the pipes is often a vibrating sound or a rapid ticking sound similar in pace to a machine gun firing. At least what one sounds like in the movies. Air in the pipes can be really difficult to get rid of. Air tends to get trapped at high points of the pipe system where it is difficult to push out. As the water moves in the pipes it breaks the pockets of air up into tiny bubbles. Then the water flows past the bubbles, leaving the air still in the pipe. These tiny bubbles moving around, and expanding and contracting, are that rapid vibrating sound you hear. Water hammer can also be the source of the noise. Water hammer can be a big thump that shakes the house, or a series of banging noises starting with a loud bang followed by several "echoes". The best way to identify if the noise is water hammer is to ask yourself "when does it happen." If the noise occurs when you open a valve or a faucet, it is probably air in the pipes. If it occurs when a valve closes or the washer changes cycles, it is probably water hammer. If it occurs when a pump starts, it could be water hammer, air in the pipes, or both. Although opening valves can sometimes create water hammer, this typically only occurs with valves larger than 3" in size, and even then it is reasonably rare.

ACT II. THE NEXT DAY.

There are only two ways to get the air out; push it out by increasing the water velocity speed, or open the pipe and release the air. To push the air out you need to temporarily increase the water velocity to the point the water "sweeps" out the air bubbles. To increase the velocity you need to turn on as many water outlets as possible. That creates a high water demand and the water velocity goes way up. As the water rushes through the pipe the trapped air is swept along with it and out of the pipe. If the air is in the irrigation mainline a mainline is the pipe upstream of the circuit control valves you should be able to increase the velocity by manually opening two or more of the circuit valves at once. Most electric irrigation valves can be manually opened by twisting a lever under the valve's solenoid the thing the wires go into, or by partially unscrewing a bleed screw on top of the valve. Do not remove the bleed screw, just slowly turn it until the valve opens. Open all of the valves at the same time if you need to. Let the water run for a while to give it a chance to push all the air out. When you close the valves close them one at a time. Closing them all at once can cause a pressure surge that can damage your irrigation system. Don't be surprised if the valves take a long time to close, this is fairly normal when more than one valve is opened at the same time. If the electric valves won't close, slowly turn off the main water supply to the irrigation system, wait one minute, then slowly turn it back on. They should now be closed. If the noise only occurs when an individual sprinkler valve always the same valve is opened the air may be in the lateral pipe the pipe downstream of the valve. In that case you will need to temporarily remove some of the sprinkler heads on that valve circuit in order to increase the water velocity. Remove the 3 sprinkler heads furthest from the valve and then open the valve to flush out the air. If that doesn't get it out try removing more sprinklers. After the air is flushed out, put the sprinkler heads back on. If that fixes the problem temporarily but it returns after the next time you irrigate, then the problem is that the water is draining out of the pipes through the sprinkler heads after each irrigation. This is probably because one or more sprinkler heads are lower than the others. When the water drains out, air gets back into the pipes. To prevent this you need to install "anti-drain check valves" at the inlet of each sprinkler head. The anti-drain check valve is a small spring-loaded check valve. The check valve holds back the water so it doesn't drain out. It does not effect the performance of the sprinkler head noticeably. Many sprinkler heads are available with this feature built-in to the sprinkler. Some brands also have retrofit kits available that allow the check valves to be easily installed in existing sprinklers. The built-in anti-drain check valves do not effect the performance of the sprinkler at all. If the air is in your household pipes try turning on all the faucets in the house and then flush all the toilets. Again, give it a few minutes to push that air out. If you know where the water supply comes into your house turn off the faucets starting with the one closest to the water supply entry point, then close them one at a time moving away from the entry point. As you come to a toilet when you are moving through the house turning off faucets, flush it again, then wait two minutes before closing the next faucet. Don't forget the faucets on the outside of the house.

ACT III. TOMORROW.

Next try a water hammer arrestor. This often doesn't work with air problems, but it's worth a try. At your local hardware or home store look for a pre-packaged water hammer arrestor that attaches to a standard washing machine cold-water outlet. The ones I have seen come in one of those clear plastic display packages, and look like a copper tube with hose connections. Check the return policy of the store before you buy it, if you can, buy it someplace where they will take it back if it doesn't work. Make sure you keep all the packaging. Install it per the directions on the package. If it doesn't work, remove it and return it. If the air can't be pushed out, and the water hammer arrestor didn't work, you will need to find where the air is trapped in the pipe and "open the pipe" to release it. Air rises above water, so the air is likely trapped in a high spot in the piping. Try to visualize how your irrigation system is laid out. Are there any obvious high points where air might be trapped. If you can identify a likely high point turn off the main water shut-off valve and open a faucet or valve to release the water pressure. Then cut the pipe at the high point and install a tee on it with a small valve on the tee outlet. A compression type tee may be easier to install. A 1/2" valve, or even a smaller one if you can find one, will work fine for the valve. Do not use a gate valve! Gate valves tend to leak easily. Ball valves work good. See the drawing below. The valve needs to be on a short nipple, a few inches above the pipe as shown. Stop snickering, in the irrigation business a nipple is the name of a short length of pipe. Close the faucet and turn the water back on. The air will rise to the highest point which is the short upright nipple under the valve. You can then open the valve just a little bit to let the air escape. Some water is going to come out too, so be prepared for it to squirt! After releasing the air put a plug in the outlet of the valve for safety. Sometimes you will get all the air out and everything will be fine for a while, then without warning, the air noise will return. This is because the water coming into your house or irrigation system sometimes has air trapped in it. Have you ever filled a glass of water from the kitchen faucet and noticed it was a milky white color. But after sitting for a while it turns clear. That white color most likely was caused by tiny bubbles of air in the water. This air can get in the water lots of ways, it is fairly normal and doesn't by itself mean your water is polluted or not drinkable. But this air does tend to rise out of the water when the water is sitting in your pipes, and it can form an air pocket in the pipe after a while. This causes the wonderful air noise you enjoy so much to return. If this happens often you can add a "continuous venting" type air vent in place of the valve in the drawing above. The air vent needs to be the type that releases air while under pressure. The type of air vents that are made for most irrigation systems will not work. The type you want has a float connected to an arm that uses a lever to open and close a small valve that allows the air to escape. The correct vent type is often called an "air eliminator" or "air relief valve." Look for that term "continuous venting". Most plumbing supply stores will have one. A 1/4" size one should work fine.