Plumbing – Why would i have 20 volts a.c.running through the plumbing

When this happened at my house it was the antiscalding valve at the water heater. These mix cold and hot water together to reduce the temperature of the hot water to safe levels. Some places install them at each faucet, others install them at the water heater itself.

Turning on one faucet would just give cold water no longer how long it ran. But opening others, or sometimes turning the tap on and off rapidly a few times would bring the hot water.

The anti scalding valve was getting stuck, and the pressure changes of opening more faucets, or maybe water hammer effect from opening and closing would make it work for awhile.

If you installed a new one at your new water heater it might be defective. If you kept an existing one it may be worn out or have minerals trapped in it - sometimes things like that never cause a problem until you turn the water off and it moves around.

Also check under the sink to see if it has an anti scalding valve. It might need replacing too.

You have 2-3 cleanouts for sure in a house built in 94 in the US.

• The roof. The main stack will have a roof exit. Depending on type of home and where the problem is this is often the easiest to snake.

• The mainstack in basement (or first floor if there is no basement). Find your main stack. it should have a cleanout that you can open with standard monkey wrench. You can buy decent DIY snake to clean out your own from there.

• Find the closest sewer to your house. Draw a straight line from stack to the sewer or draw a line from stack directly out the front out your house. You should have about an 8 inch covered pipe. These are usually closer to the street but really differs. Also most are in the front yard since sewers are often laid with roads but this can differ too.

Thoughts on your plumber... If he can't find a cleanout I would not invite him back to do any other work. If you have a new house and main stack is covered with a wall (would have been done by previous home owner) plumber should have insisted on opening walls until he found it.

If you have full access to main stack and there is no cleanout it is rather easy to cut a block of PVC off and put a cleanout T in. This is literally a half hour job - and obviously you need one.