This morning i turned on the hose and the water came out at its regular
pressure, then suddenly the water came out as a trickle. I checked some
other bibbs on that side and the water barely came out. The rest of the
house is not affected by the low pressure. Any ideas why the pressure
is low on only one side of the house?

writes:

This morning i turned on the hose and the water came out at its regular
pressure, then suddenly the water came out as a trickle. I checked some
other bibbs on that side and the water barely came out. The rest of the
house is not affected by the low pressure. Any ideas why the pressure
is low on only one side of the house?

Random ideas:

Interior cutoff valve you forgot to turn back on fully after winter?

Someone flushing a toilet at the moment you tested the first bib,
continuing through test of other bibs on that side of the house, but
the toilet was filled by the time you got to testing other faucets?

Opening the valve for the first time of the season dislodged some crap
that ended up blocking the supply line to those bibs somehow?

Wild guesses of course. SEems like a weird one!

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

wrote:
This morning i turned on the hose and the water came out at its regular
pressure, then suddenly the water came out as a trickle. I checked some
other bibbs on that side and the water barely came out. The rest of the
house is not affected by the low pressure. Any ideas why the pressure
is low on only one side of the house?

Mine does the same thing. The water on the front of the house has much
more pressure than the back of the house. And I have no idea why. I
have not cut anything off with a cut off valve or anything else. It
has been that way since I moved in...years ago.

USA1st wrote in message
.com...

wrote:
This morning i turned on the hose and the water came out at its regular
pressure, then suddenly the water came out as a trickle. I checked some
other bibbs on that side and the water barely came out. The rest of the
house is not affected by the low pressure. Any ideas why the pressure
is low on only one side of the house?

Mine does the same thing. The water on the front of the house has much
more pressure than the back of the house. And I have no idea why. I
have not cut anything off with a cut off valve or anything else. It
has been that way since I moved in...years ago.


In my part of the country, we have fairly hard water. The hardness
(calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate) precipitates on the insides of the
pipes. In one of my houses, the scale clogged many of the pipes so that
the water was flowing in an area about the size of a pencil.

If anything like this is happening in your house, then a small piece of
scale/debris/detritus, etc, etc could easily break lose, plug a pipe and
restrict flow to the faucets which it served.

My third house had noticeably uneven flow in various parts of the house.
The kitchen sink was barely affected but the washing machine seemed to take
forever to fill.

I have been told that horizontal lines are more prone to this type of
plugging. The guy that bought my third house ended up replacing all of
the exposed pipes in the basement (mostly horizontal) though I don't know
how well that worked.

From a more or less random Google hit:

". . . .White or tan particles can be a combination of calcium carbonate and
magnesium carbonate. This material is often referred to as pipe scale.
Calcium and magnesium carbonates are naturally occurring minerals and are
found in varying concentrations in most waters around the world. . . .

The amount of these minerals in the water determines the hardness of the
water; higher mineral concentrations make the water harder. . . . Over
time, these minerals can deposit on the inside of your pipes and then begin
to flake off. . . ."


Regards
Al

In article , (Todd H.) wrote:

writes:

This morning i turned on the hose and the water came out at its regular
pressure, then suddenly the water came out as a trickle. I checked some
other bibbs on that side and the water barely came out. The rest of the
house is not affected by the low pressure. Any ideas why the pressure
is low on only one side of the house?

Random ideas:

Interior cutoff valve you forgot to turn back on fully after winter?

Someone flushing a toilet at the moment you tested the first bib,
continuing through test of other bibs on that side of the house, but
the toilet was filled by the time you got to testing other faucets?

Opening the valve for the first time of the season dislodged some crap
that ended up blocking the supply line to those bibs somehow?

Wild guesses of course. SEems like a weird one!

Those would all be nice zero cost solutions, but I'd put my
money on Al's theory--a clogged pipe. What the poster needs
to do is take inventory. Go to every water pipe termination
and run the water. Map out which ones run normal, and which
ones are degraded. That might suggest a common pipe somewhere
and at least limit down where the problem might be.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

I'm not sure where to start looking for a clogged pipe. Would i start
from the street and follow to the bibb? If it is a clogged pipe, how do
i clean it out? Seems like some extensive digging might need to to be
done to find the problem. The odd thing is it happened suddenly. It
wasn't a gradual decrease in pressure.All valves are on.
John A. Weeks III wrote:
In article , (Todd H.) wrote:

writes:

This morning i turned on the hose and the water came out at its regular
pressure, then suddenly the water came out as a trickle. I checked some
other bibbs on that side and the water barely came out. The rest of the
house is not affected by the low pressure. Any ideas why the pressure
is low on only one side of the house?

Random ideas:

Interior cutoff valve you forgot to turn back on fully after winter?

Someone flushing a toilet at the moment you tested the first bib,
continuing through test of other bibs on that side of the house, but
the toilet was filled by the time you got to testing other faucets?

Opening the valve for the first time of the season dislodged some crap
that ended up blocking the supply line to those bibs somehow?

Wild guesses of course. SEems like a weird one!

Those would all be nice zero cost solutions, but I'd put my
money on Al's theory--a clogged pipe. What the poster needs
to do is take inventory. Go to every water pipe termination
and run the water. Map out which ones run normal, and which
ones are degraded. That might suggest a common pipe somewhere
and at least limit down where the problem might be.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

In article .com,
wrote:
I'm not sure where to start looking for a clogged pipe. Would i start
from the street and follow to the bibb? If it is a clogged pipe, how do
i clean it out? Seems like some extensive digging might need to to be
done to find the problem. The odd thing is it happened suddenly. It
wasn't a gradual decrease in pressure.All valves are on.

The first step is to isolate the section of pipe that is blocked.

If 2 or 3 are weak, find what pipe(s) a

1) Common to all weak bibbs/faucets
2) not used by any bibbs/faucets with normal flow.

A very simple example. "X" represents a faucet.

a X---------| d
b X---------|------------|
c X---------| |
| f
e X----------------------|--------------- supply
g X----------------------|

If a, b, & c are slow and e & g are OK. pipe segment "d" is most likely
clogged.

--
Rich Greenberg N Ft Myers, FL, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 239 543 1353
Eastern time. N6LRT I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67
Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, Zero & Casey, Siberians Owner:Chinook-L
Retired at the beach Asst Owner:Sibernet-L

On 15 Jun 2006 19:45:23 -0700, someone wrote:

This morning i turned on the hose and the water came out at its regular
pressure, then suddenly the water came out as a trickle.

You're absolutely sure that the hose isn't kinked? Absolutely sure
that the blockage isn't in the hose itself?

You only said you "turned on the hose", 1st it ran full force, 2nd it
turned to a trickle. Did you try seeing what the hose bibb did by
itself (with the hose removed)???


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.

"v" wrote in message
...
On 15 Jun 2006 19:45:23 -0700, someone wrote:

This morning i turned on the hose and the water came out at its regular
pressure, then suddenly the water came out as a trickle.

You're absolutely sure that the hose isn't kinked? Absolutely sure
that the blockage isn't in the hose itself?

You only said you "turned on the hose", 1st it ran full force, 2nd it
turned to a trickle. Did you try seeing what the hose bibb did by
itself (with the hose removed)???


I am thinking that there was an air gap in the hose line. This happens to
me all the time. I have hoses connected to hoses to make long runs and air
bleeds in through the connections when the hose is turned off. I turn it on
and it runs fine until I hit the air gap and it trickles for a while until
it catches up and comes out again.
Tomes