You turn on your dishwasher or washing machine or sprinklers or any water faucet in your home and a few minutes in you hear a very loud bang or series of banging noises!

What could be causing the noises? It could either be air in the pipes or water hammer.

There’s no way to know which of these two is the cause without a camera inspection or working to release the air from the pipes. If this works, then you solved the issue. If it doesn’t, then you can suspect that it’s a water hammer problem.

To fix a water hammer issue – call in a professional plumber.

How To Remove Air From Water Pipes

There are basically two ways to remove air from water pipes.

  1. Increase the water velocity.
  2. Open the pipe to release the air.

Increasing Water Velocity

You want to push the air out of the water pipes and sometimes, just rushing the water at a high velocity through the pipes can do that.

So, follow these steps…

  1. Turn off the main water valve to your home. If you don’t know where this is, contact your plumber.
  2. Open all the faucets in your home so that the remaining water in the pipes drains out.
  3. Flush all the toilets repeatedly until there is no water left in the tank.
  4. Turn the main water valve back on.
  5. Then turn on each water faucet (one at a time) and let the water flow until it’s not sputtering out any longer.

(Water sputtering out of the faucet indicates that there may be air in the water pipes.)

Opening The Water Pipes

Obviously, opening the water pipes is more invasive than increasing the flow of water through the pipes but if that doesn’t work then you may have to open the pipes to release that air.

This could be difficult depending on where the pipes are located.

We recommend that you contact a professional plumber to work on this for you.

What Is Water Hammer?

The term “water hammer” refers to the noise that is produced when running water hits a closed valve – that is supposed to be an open valve. When the water hits that closure, and essentially has nowhere to go it creates a loud thud.

Water hammers should not be ignored because in time, they could cause some serious damage to your water pipes.

Again, contact a plumber for this issue.

For more information about noisy pipes – read our article Why Do My Water Pipes Make Noise?

If you are having problems with noisy pipes, or have any questions about this problem – call the experts at Atlantis Plumbing today at 770-505-8570.