# Plastic ball in water pipes?



## The Dane (Feb 19, 2015)

So I go to replace a shower cartridge today after I did some work yesterday where I shut off the main water valve in the house and later that night they had no water in the shower upstairs. I replace the cartridge and from no water we now have cold but no hot water. I flushed out the lines before putting the new cartridge in. I end up seeing something at the valve inlet on the hot side and try to get it out but no luck. I cut the copper line going up to the valve and now at the top of the pipe is this little white ball floating in the pipe. Just a little bit smaller than the pipe. Since it was floating I guess it is plastic. Does any of you know what the heck it is and how it might have gotten in the waterlines?









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## 5onthefloor (Sep 13, 2017)

The Dane said:


> So I go to replace a shower cartridge today after I did some work yesterday where I shut off the main water valve in the house and later that night they had no water in the shower upstairs. I replace the cartridge and from no water we now have cold but no hot water. I flushed out the lines before putting the new cartridge in. I end up seeing something at the valve inlet on the hot side and try to get it out but no luck. I cut the copper line going up to the valve and now at the top of the pipe is this little white ball floating in the pipe. Just a little bit smaller than the pipe. Since it was floating I guess it is plastic. Does any of you know what the heck it is and how it might have gotten in the waterlines?
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It's possible that is the from heat trap nipple from hot water heater. If you look at water heater, remove hot connection and cold connection and compare. There is supposed to be a little cage that holds it in prob broke off. I think that will be the one from hot side since you said it was from hot line. Just guessing tho 

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## The Dane (Feb 19, 2015)

5onthefloor said:


> It's possible that is the from heat trap nipple from hot water heater. If you look at water heater, remove hot connection and cold connection and compare. There is supposed to be a little cage that holds it in prob broke off. I think that will be the one from hot side since you said it was from hot line. Just guessing tho
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


The only kind of heat trap I remember seeing in the nipples on top of a water heater has looked more like little rubber flappers not plastic balls.

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## 5onthefloor (Sep 13, 2017)

The Dane said:


> The only kind of heat trap I remember seeing in the nipples on top of a water heater has looked more like little rubber flappers not plastic balls.
> 
> Sent from my R1 HD using Tapatalk


Yeah that's what I see now. I remember years ago I ran into this and the heat traps were little plastic balls. Don't remember which manufacturer used em

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## The Dane (Feb 19, 2015)

5onthefloor said:


> Yeah that's what I see now. I remember years ago I ran into this and the heat traps were little plastic balls. Don't remember which manufacturer used em
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


Looks like it probably was exactly that. A heat trap ball. Though it seems like the ball in the hot outlet side sinks down and the ball in the cold inlet nipple floats up like the one I found blocking the valve. So for the ball to go from cold line to hot line must mean that the heat trap in both cold nipple and the hot nipple must be broken.









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## 5onthefloor (Sep 13, 2017)

The Dane said:


> Looks like it probably was exactly that. A heat trap ball. Though it seems like the ball in the hot outlet side sinks down and the ball in the cold inlet nipple floats up like the one I found blocking the valve. So for the ball to go from cold line to hot line must mean that the heat trap in both cold nipple and the hot nipple must be broken.
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Yeah I circled the part that prob broke you can see it in your picture. Too bad you can't go back and check/compare with cold side.









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## The Dane (Feb 19, 2015)

5onthefloor said:


> Yeah I circled the part that prob broke you can see it in your picture. Too bad you can't go back and check/compare with cold side.
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Except that the ball was floating so must have come from the cold side so both the part under the ball in the cold nipple and the part under the ball in the hot nipple plus the part over the ball in the hot nipple must all have broken. So the part you circled plus 2 more parts. Seems very unlikely.

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## 5onthefloor (Sep 13, 2017)

You said you only cut the copper on the hot side at the shower valve right? That's the only reason I thought it was the one from hot side. Either way, what a pain! We're you able to charge extra? Def not your fault

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## Debo22 (Feb 15, 2015)

Looks just like the heat trap balls. I've seen people install them backwards, the cold nipple may be on the hot side. I ran a call years ago where a homeowner installed a heater himself and had no hot water anywhere in the house. Turns out he installed one of the nipples upside down.


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## The Dane (Feb 19, 2015)

5onthefloor said:


> You said you only cut the copper on the hot side at the shower valve right? That's the only reason I thought it was the one from hot side. Either way, what a pain! We're you able to charge extra? Def not your fault
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


Yes I only cut the hot copper line but if both heat traps we're broken then the hot ball would sink down to the bottom of the tank and the cold ball float up in to the hot line I guess. Yes what a pain. Boss thought I spent too long on figuring out what it was instead of replacing the valve. But yes we will definitely charge for it because it might have happened after I shut off the water in the house but we can't be responsible for the state of a customer's water lines or in this case broken parts from a water heater.

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## The Dane (Feb 19, 2015)

Debo22 said:


> Looks just like the heat trap balls. I've seen people install them backwards, the cold nipple may be on the hot side. I ran a call years ago where a homeowner installed a heater himself and had no hot water anywhere in the house. Turns out he installed one of the nipples upside down.


I have only seen them pre installed from the factory.

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## 5onthefloor (Sep 13, 2017)

It's a good thing u did not replace the valve. Still would have had the same issue. It's a good thing you figured it out tho

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## CT-18 (Jun 27, 2016)

Years ago when I was still in the field, I worked on a new school job. The company I was with hired a few disgruntled fitters and they decided to dump a hand full of marbles in the potable water supply. Those things found their way into some 1/2" lines and plugged them. That was a real blast trying to track them down and get them out.


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## Plumbus (Aug 4, 2008)

Another story from the dust bin:
We had just remodeled a house where we had relocated the water heater. We got a call saying there was no hot water. Went to investigate and found that when the hot side of a faucet was turned on in certain parts of the house, it would flow nicely for 2-3 seconds then slow to a trickle. After shutting the faucet off and waiting 10 seconds, when the water was turned back on, the same thing occurred. Thinking about this, I concluded that something was blocking the hot line. Since it only happened in part of the house, I assumed the blockage was in a distribution line somewhere. So, I went down into the crawl space and bellied over to the area below the water heater. After studying the piping, I took a guess and cut out a section of pipe right where it turned from vertical to horizontal. When I pointed a light down the tube I saw the problem. Inside the tube right at the 1" 90° was a 3/4" 90° which looked like it was soldered to the larger fitting. After repairing the cut, the problem went away. 
Trying to figure out how the fitting got there, I found that my employee who did the work carried under the house the fittings he was using in a plastic bucket. The smaller 90° must have found it's way into the larger one while bouncing across the subfloor and in the poor light while on his back, he didn't notice it during installation. Bad luck, but better than if it were in a wall. Plus, my first guess could have been wrong.


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