sand in water pipes
 

I had a sprinkler system problem that required several repairs and in that
process I seem to have gotten a lot of debris in the pipes inside my home.
In fact, the final repair was made (by me) and when I turned on the water at
the street, there was no pressure at all! I fooled with this and that then
when I was in the garage, I heard sound from the pipes I never heard before.
The main cutoff for the house is there behind the water heater so I closed
the valve all the way, then reopened it and in that process I must have
knocked the plug loose because I now had pressure albeit weak. Since them,
I've had to flush out all the toilet fill valves. I've taken off the
aerators of most faucets to clean out the screens. But I still have pressure
problems. The main one now (or next on the list) is the washing machine.
When the rinse is set to cold, it would probably take a 30 minutes to fill
the tub. I've put it on warm so we can at least do laundry. How would I go
about flushing the clog in a washing machine, and does anyone have any
suggestions about how to flush out the whole system?

sand in water pipes
 

On Apr 21, 7:17*am, "Jim Jones"
wrote:
I had a sprinkler system problem that required several repairs and in that
process I seem to have gotten a lot of debris in the pipes inside my home..
In fact, the final repair was made (by me) and when I turned on the water at
the street, there was no pressure at all! I fooled with this and that then
when I was in the garage, I heard sound from the pipes I never heard before.
The main cutoff for the house is there behind the water heater so I closed
the valve all the way, then reopened it and in that process I must have
knocked the plug loose because I now had pressure albeit weak. Since them,
I've had to flush out all the toilet fill valves. I've taken off the
aerators of most faucets to clean out the screens. But I still have pressure
problems. The main one now (or next on the list) is the washing machine.
When the rinse is set to cold, it would probably take a 30 minutes to fill
the tub. I've put it on warm so we can at least do laundry. How would I go
about flushing the clog in a washing machine, and does anyone have any
suggestions about how to flush out the whole system?

My washer hose came with a screen filter that was clogged and slow for
years until I found out, remove both hose fittings maybe you will be
lucky and find a clogged screen filter. To avoid future issues whole
house filters at the incomming main are very cheap, mine has a clear
housing to see any buildup.

sand in water pipes
 

To avoid future issues whole house filters at the incomming main are very
cheap, mine has a clear
housing to see any buildup.

I need to do something, yes. When I put my sprinkler system in 20 years ago
(myself) I dug down to the footing where the water line enters the crawl
space (it's a blue plastic line about 1/2") cut the line and installed a
compression T where the T went to my sprinkler system. After 20 years the
plastic pipes broke, then when I fixed them the blue plastic started coming
loose from that compression T so I had to fix this 3 times before it was
really "fixed". So in the times when the system was broken there were
several hours of time that the water was flowing out through the dirt before
the leak was detected. I was very surprised at how much dirt can get into
the system.

sand in water pipes
 

On Apr 21, 7:17*am, "Jim Jones"
wrote:
I had a sprinkler system problem that required several repairs and in that
process I seem to have gotten a lot of debris in the pipes inside my home..
In fact, the final repair was made (by me) and when I turned on the water at
the street, there was no pressure at all! I fooled with this and that then
when I was in the garage, I heard sound from the pipes I never heard before.
The main cutoff for the house is there behind the water heater so I closed
the valve all the way, then reopened it and in that process I must have
knocked the plug loose because I now had pressure albeit weak. Since them,
I've had to flush out all the toilet fill valves. I've taken off the
aerators of most faucets to clean out the screens. But I still have pressure
problems. The main one now (or next on the list) is the washing machine.
When the rinse is set to cold, it would probably take a 30 minutes to fill
the tub. I've put it on warm so we can at least do laundry. How would I go
about flushing the clog in a washing machine, and does anyone have any
suggestions about how to flush out the whole system?

To begin with; you should have a double check valve on lawn sprinklers
to avoid contaminating the house water, most places require this.
If you use chemicals on your lawn, you probably have some of that too.
since the main shut off helped, try that again, & open the nearest
faucet and let it run for like an hour.

sand in water pipes
 

To begin with; you should have a double check valve on lawn sprinklers
to avoid contaminating the house water, most places require this.
If you use chemicals on your lawn, you probably have some of that too.
since the main shut off helped, try that again, & open the nearest
faucet and let it run for like an hour.


My sprinkler valves are anti-siphon. I thought that was all that was
necessary.