Pressure drop in well supply but not everywhere

[Tim Spears]

Hi all. I have a well that supplies water for irrigation and household use. I share the well with a neighbor but we each have our own booster pump from the holding tank. A few years back he had some construction done and they hit my main supply downstream of my booster pump, and flooded the entire place since they couldn’t find the CB for the pump (which is on my side). We eventually got it shut off but some of the dirt drained back into the plumbing before they repaired it all.

This means my whole plumbing system was fed a bucket of gravel and this is the issue I’m trying to deal with. All my irrigation valves got dirt in them but I was able to remove the diaphragms and purge them. Problem I have now is that some parts of my irrigation and my household supply drop pressure when water is flowing. Not everywhere - I have some large zones with high volume sprinklers that have plenty of flow and pressure, but other areas that do not.

I’m guessing there are some stones choking the flow somewhere the pipes reduce or go ‘round a bend, and I want to troubleshoot it. I want to dig down at various points and measure the water pressure (with and without flow) to locate the blockage. Most of the plumbing outside is PCV (CPVC?), some of it 2” and some 1.5” and some 1”.

I could completely cut and insert tee joints everywhere I want to measure, but that’s more intrusive than I’d like and I don’t want to permanently install scores of pressure gauges. The ideal would be to drill a tiny hole and screw some sort of tap into it that I can measure the pressure at and then cap off and bury again. Maybe something like a saddle-valve for big pipes.

Anyone have any suggestions about what I might use, or alternative approaches to addressing the problem?

 

[Terry]

On one home where the landscapers had allowed dirt into the main water service when they were working with the irrigation, I opened up the main line and had it draining outside, installed a shutoff to allow the use of the front hosebib where I connected a hose, and then went to every fixture in the home and ran water which then went backwards, flushing out much of the dirt.

I used a washer shutoff, which comes with a hose thread and 1/2" threading on the other side, which allowed me to connect a garden hose, and a supply line to backflush with.
It has a shutoff, so I was able to open and close the valve as needed.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Tim Spears]

On one home where the landscapers had allowed dirt into the main water service when they were working with the irrigation, I opened up the main line and had it draining outside, installed a shutoff to allow the use of the front hosebib where I connected a hose, and then went to every fixture in the home and ran water which then went backwards, flushing out much of the dirt.

I used a washer shutoff, which comes with a hose thread and 1/2" threading on the other side, which allowed me to connect a garden hose, and a supply line to backflush with.
It has a shutoff, so I was able to open and close the valve as needed.

Thanks Terry! I'll give that a try. I probably need a bit more than 100 yards of hose, so will need to try to find something with a larger diameter than a regular garden hose if I want to get a decent flow rate. Perhaps I'll install an inline trap/filter in the 2" supply line that I can use to flush the water out of.

 

[Terry]

With the home I flushed, I made sure I had a hosebib I could pull water from. After flushing I had to put things back the way they were.