Your Pipes Are Banging Every Time You Turn Off a Faucet. Here's What's Actually Happening.

That bang every time your washing machine finishes filling — or your dishwasher cycles off — is water hammer: a hydraulic shock wave from a column of water hitting a fast-closing valve with nowhere to go. Left unfixed, it fatigues pipe joints and fittings over years. In this episode of Torque & Tape, we cover what water hammer actually is, why old standpipe air chambers stop working, and how to install a modern water hammer arrestor correctly — including the compression fitting mistake to avoid. New episodes weekly on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.