[RichTibo]

I have a new construction home. Moved in July 2012.
Is it normal that the shower head and kitchen faucet have sand in the filter screens causing the water pressure to be much lower than it should be? What should I do to fix this?

 

[joeplumber85]

This happens often due to the piping collecting dirt, sand and saw dust in it while the plumbers are installing it. You should have some sort of warranty against this and should take action.

The debris SHOULD collect at the aerator but with many of these newer low flow faucets and showers the debris will get stuck in the cartridges or worse. I make a lot of money dealing with situations like this.

 

[Maintenance 6]

You definiately want to keep an eye on your icemaker water feed valve, your dishwasher feed valve and your washing machine. Sand in these valves can cause major headaches......... and floods.

 

[RichTibo]

What kind of action should I take, how can I fix these issues, so I don't need to check all of the water connections?

 

[SeniorSitizen]

What kind of action should I take, how can I fix these issues, so I don't need to check all of the water connections?

A worse case is one grain of sand of the correct size lodging in the mixer valve of some laundry units of that design. When the water level is reached and the woe thingy says stop the water keeps running and floods the house.

If you have a well it may be pumping some sand and a sediment tank followed by a whole house filter is what I recommend. Sediment tanks for sand don't need to be elaborate. I have one that cost 0.0 and it has worked well for nearly 30 years.

If you aren't on a well flush the lines, a step that the builder omitted.

 

[Javiles]

If it continues you'll need to back flush the plumbing water supply to the whole house, should be covered under your warranty. oh by the way well water or city.

 

[Maintenance 6]

Are you on a municipal water system or do you have a well?

 

[RichTibo]

we are on municipal water. The builder came over on Wednesday, saw all the stuff caught in my kitchen and showerhead filters and called the builders plumbers to come and look at what he thought was particle board from the counter tops. The builders plumber came over the other day and said he didn't know what it was that was in my filters of the kitchen faucet and my shower head upstairs. It looks a lot like particle board from the counter tops, but he said he didn't think that this was the case. I figure he wants to protect the builder at all costs. He said he thought it had something to do with the tankless water heater that we run on in our house. He said he thinks these tankless heaters may cause the systems to need to be flushed more often. He said he will call the manufacturer on Monday to see if there is similar problems like this and if so what to do about it?

Any advice on what I should do?

 

[Maintenance 6]

I would install a "whole house" filter just past the main shut off for your house. Then I would pull all of the aerators off of the faucets and pull the shower heads and give the whole system a good flush. If that doesn't clean it out, then something in the system is disintegrating and creating the particles. I really doubt that the water heater is causing the problem.

 

[RichTibo]

water pressure saga continues

The builder just came back to me and said he spoke to the manufacturer and they think it is because the town we live in has hard water (14 hardness according to him) above 12 it can cause sediments in your water. He suggested he install a filter before the boiler at no cost but said we would need to pay to have the boiler cleaned for efficiency on a yearly basis or we could buy an $850 water softner which he would install for free.

I'm not sure which is a better option or if these will even fix my problem but does anyone know about costs of maintaining a water softner system and if this will help. I also noticed the hot water on our low pressure(due to chunks of wood or sediment) kitchen faucet does not work very well. It gets hot for a minute and anything longer it then gets cold. Is this fixable with a water softener? We have a tankless water heater.

Any ideas?

Thanks for the help guys,

 

[RichTibo]

Got a water softener. I put salt in it once every 1-2 months and we have no more sediment issues!!!! YaY!!!