Your Handyman: Yes, your question is not the typical handyman question but is a very interesting electrical question! In some situations, a person can receive an electrical shock from the neutral wire and voltage also can be measured on the neutral wire in some cases. It almost sounds like someone is hitting the water heater tank with a hammer. Your Handyman: A noisy water heater can be very annoying and probably isn’t all that great for the water heater itself. This will run more water through the water heater tank, which will help to flush out minerals and, combined with periodic flushing, your water heater will return to doing its important job in silence.