Originally Posted by
Richard Stanley
Jerry, How do those nipples work and what is the consequence of not installing them?
Someplace I had, but cannot find it now, cut-a-way drawings and photos of heat traps showing their inner workings.
Here is all I can find right now.
The way they work, though, is there are plastic 'floats' (for lack of a better word) inside them which:
For the cold heat trap, rises (the float is lighter than the water) and seals off the top of the inlet opening so heated water cannot circulate up and out of the water heater through the cold water inlet. Yet, when hot water is needed, the pressure of the incoming water easily pushes the float down, allowing water to enter the water heater.
For the hot heat trap fitting, the float sinks (the float is heavier than the water) and seal off the bottom of the outlet opening so water cannot circulate up and out of the water heater through the hot water outlet. Yet, when hot water is needed, the pressure of the incoming water easily lifts the float off its seal at the bottom, as this float is in a cage (in the cut-a-way I saw, it may just have waterways grooved into the fitting to allow water to go around the float) and cannot go all the way to the top of the hot heat trap, letting water flow around it.
The hot and cold are different, and each must be installed properly oriented with its arrow pointing in the direction of water flow.