Plumbing Question 2
Question:
Recently I turned off the water to my house to repair a kitchen faucet. When I turned the water back on the water pressure to all faucets initially is good but quickly drops off. I do have water coming through the line but the pressure is low. I do have a water pressure regulator installed on the main water line coming into the house. It is buried about 2 feet down. Is it partially stopped up and do you think I need to replace the regulator? I have turned the water on and off several times with no change in pressure.
Answer:
Normally you would shut the water off under the sink instead of the main line to avoid “stirring up debris”. Anytime you install a new faucet, you always want to remove the new faucet aerator and then turn on the water and allow the line to flush out the sediment. Then you re-install the aerator and run water to your hearts content. You could also run water in the bath tub since they normally don’t have aerators on the tub spout and the debris just flushes down the tub drain.
But since this is after the fact, you probably have debris in all the faucet aerators and each one needs to be removed and cleaned to restore your water flow/pressure.
Your pressure regulator should be installed above ground as code requires it to be readily accessible, second I would shut off the water and remove the regulator and slowly turn the water back on to try and flush the debris out of the line. Then reinstall the regulator and see if everything is back to normal.
Some times debris can actually plug up the nipples on older houses that have galvanized water lines. If this is the case, you would have to remove and clean or replace every nipple that comes out of the wall where the shut off valves are.
You can test this by shutting off the valve under the sink, disconnecting the supply line from the faucet and placing the disconnected hose end in a bucket and turning the water on to see if you get good pressure. If not, remove the hose completely, and blow through it to see if it is stopped up. If it is not plugged, then the shut off valve needs to be removed and checked as well as the nipple it is screwed onto. Either one or both is probably plugged.