New Sill Cock / Low Pressure

[G Hughes]

I had a plumbing company replace an outdoor sill cock that had froze. They replaced it with a Woodford model 17. I now have considerably less water pressure than I had before they replaced it. My other outdoor faucet has great pressure as do the rest of the faucets inside the house. They came up to trouble shoot it the other day and were not able to figure out why it is doing this. They spent several hours at my house replacing the sill cock and they also dismantled the sipon to see if that made any difference in pressure. It made none. They also blew through the sill cock after they took it out and there was no air that came out. At that point they thought that the sill cock was faulty, but then ruled that out after they blew through the new one which also had no air coming out.

I have several questions:

1. Any ideas on what could cause the lose of water pressure in the new sill cock when the water pressure is fine in the rest of the house?

2. Before I had them come back to my house, I asked them if their work was warranted and wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to be charged to have them come up. They said their work is warranted and I wouldn't be charged. When they left, they said they were probably going to charge me for their time. What can I do about this?

Thanks for all your help,
GH

 

[Terry]

http://www.woodfordmfg.com/Woodford/Wall_Faucet_Pages/model-17.htm

The new faucet may be more restrictive than the unrestricted faucet you had.
The Woodford has a device inside that is meant to prevent Winter time freezing.

New codes require the anit-syphon. You won't be able to change that.
All of this is meant to protect you and your neighbors.

After traveling in Central America, I wished that they had the same concerns as our local govenments.
​

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Ian Gills]

The only time I noticed a problem was when I donwsized the pipe leading to the faucet. This reduced the flow rate.

If you have 1/2 inch pipe coming to this faucet then it should be fine.

If they changed the valve inside the house that can be used to turn the faucet off during the winter months to a ball valve one that has less than "full-bore" whereas the old one was "full-bore" then this may also have had an impact.

Look for anything smaller than before that they may have replaced on the line immediately before the faucet indoors and this may be your explanation.

If they did not do any modifications before the faucet and just fitted the new one then I go with Terry.

Either way, the should charge you. Flow rate is very subjective. As long as the faucet turns on and off, they have done their job.