On Sunday at my church they thought the hot water lines froze. Somebody forgot to trickle the water and we couldnt get any pressure out of any of the 8 faucets on the hot side.
There are two sides to the church, and each side has its own heater. Great. We left them all on and the head trustee and I discussed checking every several hours to see if they thawed, if there were any split lines, etc.
I went to check last night and in the sanctuary mens room I only got a trickle, but it was hot. So DEFINITELY not frozen. But I still had zero pressure on the rest of the faucets. I know that mixer has issues and they were planning on replacing it with an ADA(ish) compliant faucet anyway so I thought that might be the problem.
Then as I was wandering the church today measuring for supply lines to replace the faucets I had a revelation: What are the odds ALL the mixers failed. Not likely. Its a supply issue. And then Mrs Monkey mentioned over the summer she couldnt get hardly any hot pressure in the kitchen, and I recall the same. So over the last 6 months we have gradually lost hot side pressure.
The only odd thing is there are two heaters in play, so they both have to have clogged. These are electric units.
So what says INGO? gunk clogging the pickup tube? junk in the lines? One is professionally plumbed with copper. The other was a self install by a trustee using grey pex or PVC/CPVC. (havent been able to tell yet. )
This one I'm tearing into tomorrow. The rust buildup around that connector is troubling. Thats why Im thinking its all rust and sediment. The water supply here is very hard, but no dissolved iron and no red stains on any fixtures.
EDIT: Important point is these tanks sit for days at a time with no use. Possibly even weeks at a time with minimal use. So not much flow to keep sediment from forming.
EDIT2: Screens are good. Cold water flows freely on each faucet.
There are two sides to the church, and each side has its own heater. Great. We left them all on and the head trustee and I discussed checking every several hours to see if they thawed, if there were any split lines, etc.
I went to check last night and in the sanctuary mens room I only got a trickle, but it was hot. So DEFINITELY not frozen. But I still had zero pressure on the rest of the faucets. I know that mixer has issues and they were planning on replacing it with an ADA(ish) compliant faucet anyway so I thought that might be the problem.
Then as I was wandering the church today measuring for supply lines to replace the faucets I had a revelation: What are the odds ALL the mixers failed. Not likely. Its a supply issue. And then Mrs Monkey mentioned over the summer she couldnt get hardly any hot pressure in the kitchen, and I recall the same. So over the last 6 months we have gradually lost hot side pressure.
The only odd thing is there are two heaters in play, so they both have to have clogged. These are electric units.
So what says INGO? gunk clogging the pickup tube? junk in the lines? One is professionally plumbed with copper. The other was a self install by a trustee using grey pex or PVC/CPVC. (havent been able to tell yet. )
This one I'm tearing into tomorrow. The rust buildup around that connector is troubling. Thats why Im thinking its all rust and sediment. The water supply here is very hard, but no dissolved iron and no red stains on any fixtures.
EDIT: Important point is these tanks sit for days at a time with no use. Possibly even weeks at a time with minimal use. So not much flow to keep sediment from forming.
EDIT2: Screens are good. Cold water flows freely on each faucet.
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