No pressure...Clog?

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dubele

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Hi,

Something is up with my upstairs plumbing. Ever since a plumber buddy of mine installed a new valve in the guest bathroom, I have been having issues. The issue is that all fixtures are expelling what looks to be bits of metal. They come out greenish. This stuff is clogging my fixtures. I've had to remove the shower head in the other bathroom several times because the water comes to a standstill....I clean it out and then I am back in business. Now, I notice in the bathroom that I just renovated, the new sink has no pressure at all....the tub and shower are fine.

When my buddy put on the valve, he put it on wrong. When he went to disassemble the solder joints, he banged the hell out of the joints with a wrench as he heated. Since my water heater runs perfectly clear and is maintained, I can only think that this is the source of my problem....my buddy beating the hell out of the pipes and that he knocked a bunch of crap loose. Also, this issue started immediately after he installed the valve.

The issue repeats itself anytime I turn the water to the house off. When I turn it back on and turn on the upstairs tub valve, this crap comes out.

It has my hot water in my bathroom sink rendered useless....I suspect it is clogged with this crap.

How do I resolve this??

Thanks!

Doug
 

Cacher_Chick

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Take the supply lines off the fixture and run several gallons out into buckets. Make sure you get the valve wide open so the solids can pass. Once solid particles have lodged in the fixture valve cartridges, they might have to be replaced to restore full-flow.
 

dubele

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I can try that, but I don't think the issue is at the brass shutoff valve. Just so I am clear, my lines are as follows. Both hot and cold have brand new soldered Brass 1/4 shutoff valves. From them, I have flex lines running to each of the fixtures intake. From each fixtures hot and cold, there is an outlet that is another flex line. Both of these screw into a T fitting that goes into the sink fixture.

I suspect I have an issue within the thinner flex line or the sink fixture valve itself. Is there a way to back flush to remove debris??

I think what I need to do is disconnect every fixture and somehow flush out the entire upstairs.
 

Cacher_Chick

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If you run the water from the supply lines at each fixture, you will be flushing out the lines.
If there are big chunks of scale loose in the lines, it will not flow through a 1/4 turn fixture supply valve as the ports are too small.
 

Terry

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Anytime a home main is shutoff and then turned on, it's going to move junk in the pipes. We always bring the water back on real slowly.
The tub is a good one to keep open during that, there is no aerator on it, and most of the junk can pass though the faucet. Anything with a screen may need cleaning.

Banging on a valve isn't going to change anything farther down line. I think it has more to do with shutdowns.

irrigation-debrie-4.jpg
 
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