Sillcock issues after well repair

[JLAR-P]

Hi,

I am hoping for some advice. A couple days ago we had low pressure at our faucets and showerhead. We called a well specialist and they found a cracked well pipe among other things. Not sure what details will be necessary for the needed advice but will first add that we ended up with a new well pump, new piping down to the pump and a new well expansion tank and pressure switch/valves.

We were then told to open up one of our outdoor sillcocks to help flush out the chlorine and the sediment that got stirred up. I opened up the sillcock a little and it was flowing ok. I then tried to finish opening it up (quarter-turn) and was met with a very loud BANG and the water flow cut in half and stayed there. The tech guy didn't seem concerned and said that it was probably plugged a bit. If I am very careful to open the sillcock, I can get pretty good pressure out of it but just a little more leads to the loud banging noise (just once) and the water flow cuts down to something you might see in the bathroom faucet.

I have NOT tried pulling out the guts for the sillcock because I am not sure what I would be looking for. We have two identical sillcocks and they are both doing the same thing. Both are an older style Mueller Quartermaster frost free with the anti-syphon on the top and were installed in 2008 (I am basing ID on a website that helped identify these as one of their discontinued models with the solid plastic handles).

I am hoping that someone maybe has some advice as to why these two sillcocks are suddenly doing this. Is it the likely pressure increase that we got from having the fixes? The tech said that the pressure to the house is set at 65. I do not know what we had before. Is this fixable or even worth messing with? Should I just replace the sillcocks with something newer (and would that even help)?

Thanks for any help provided,

JLAR-P

 

[WorthFlorida]

Sound like debris behind the washer. If these are regular full turn spigots, remove the handle, then the packing nut and then unthread the valve stem. Of course close the valve inside the home, I presume there is a basement. Blockage can be at the inside valve or spigot. If they are frost proof spigots, turn off the pump, close off the pressure tank to the home or spigots and remove the stem.

With the stems remove slowly turn on the water to flush the pipes.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[JLAR-P]

Thank you for the reply. These are quarter turn sillcocks but the procedure was pretty much the same. I pulled the stem out and flushed the pipes. There was nothing of any substance (I caught the water with a bucket). I did notice that the two washers on the ends were a bit beat up so I replaced them with something I found in my collection. I think my replacements are a bit large but it does appear to have fixed the problem on the one that I tested ... so far anyway.

I apologize for taking up forum space. I should have just pulled the stem and looked at it in the first place. I still would have been confused as to how that could have created such a loud noise and shut down the flow so much but at least it seems to be working. I will do up the other one tomorrow and see if I have the same results.

Thank you ...

JLAR-P

 

[Terry]

Perhaps you can repair the existing hosebib.

Normally we just replace hosebibs with splits in the copper.

 

[WorthFlorida]

Hello, I have a hot/cold sill cock in my garage that has a split in one of the pipes. I left a hose attached to the sill cock and it froze and split the pipe on the right size. I can access the split pipe easily and wanted to know if I could just solder the split and be done with it. The split isn't near where the internal rubber seal travels and considering that all the other pipes are sweated, soldering it seems like an easy fix. Is there any reasons why I shouldn't do this? Thanks for any help and or suggestions. ross

Normally you cannot solder a split pipe. There is not enough copper to copper surface for a strong joint especially with pressure behind it. If you are in a place where a frost proof replacement is scarce or beyond your budget, you can try using a section of soft copper pipe. If you have some soft copper pipe, cut a section larger than the split itself. Then cut the spare pipe on one side so you can open the pipe up and wrap it around the split pipe. Using a hose clamp will help to reform it around the pipe. With cleaned copper all around and using flux you can then solder it up. Ridge copper pipe can be a bear to work with but it is doable.

In the USA there are these clamps but they are a temporary fix until permanent repairs can be made, though some may claim they are a permanent fix.

https://www.amazon.com/Do-it-Pipe-Repair-Clamp/dp/B000DZBIXA/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Do+It+Best+Global+Sourcing+-+Plumbing+Repair&qid=1671397456&sr=8-2