I don't know what I did....

...but I sure screwed up something!
What I replaced:
I have had a slow drip in my shower for about 3 months. This drip increased to a steady trickle. I could not find my house main shut of. I decided, using all the squirrel power in my head, to just close the w/heater valve, and open all the cold water valves in the house to lessen the pressure when I removed the cold water valve from the shower. Everyting worked fine... I thought. No more leaking faucet valve.

My problem:
After my "valve repalcement", The water pressure in my entire house has dropped by half!?! Most would think I have a leak or a broken pipe, but here is the kicker...My water lines build up pressure when faucets are off, and only drops after a faucet has been opened for about 3 or 4 seconds. I just thougth I would throw this out there for ideas, before I spent the money on a real plumber. I do have a PRV under my house, but people I have talked to have said they only hear about to much pressure when those malfunction.


Any ideas?

Two thoughts:

Either you have left a valve in the cold water off, or else you have somehow screwed up the PRV. Depending on the type of PRV, it should respond to flow. If you turned all your fixtures on full blast you could have a PRV stuck. Those valves do need occasional service.

The maximum flow through the pipes with every faucet open probably dislodged the long-term crud accumulated on the inside of your pipes. You probably need to go around to each faucet and remove the aerators, clean them, and reinstall.

jadnashua said:

The maximum flow through the pipes with every faucet open probably dislodged the long-term crud accumulated on the inside of your pipes. You probably need to go around to each faucet and remove the aerators, clean them, and reinstall.

Click to expand...

I did that, and yes there was a little bit of stuff in the aerators. The wierd thing is I have full pressure building up in the lines. Using one of those WATTS pressure gauges, I found the preasure in my pipes was 88-89lbs.

Engineer Ben said:

Two thoughts:

Either you have left a valve in the cold water off, or else you have somehow screwed up the PRV. Depending on the type of PRV, it should respond to flow. If you turned all your fixtures on full blast you could have a PRV stuck. Those valves do need occasional service.

Click to expand...

How hard is it to clean out? I took a look at a couple PRV's at Lowes, and they look like they are designed to be easliy maintained, I just don't know what to expect when I get down there and tear into it.

if pressure drops quickly upon opening a faucet..

that means you have a "mostly" shut off water supply: maybe a 90% restriction somewhere between the water entering the house, and the affected faucets.
so when there is no flow, theopressure rises to full city water pressure, But the tiny opening( 10 %, or so) only allows enough water through for a trickle.

You need to track down the restriction: valve defective, loose crud,etc.

Pressure can easily be fine until you open a valve and have some flow. Measure the pressure when you have some flow, my guess is it will drop way off. Like trying to feed a fire hose with a soda straw. Somewhere, you have a clog. Sometimes, there's a screen filter on the inlet to the PRV, and some valves have them as well. Is there a whole-house filter? It could be clogged as well.

faucet

There is no way you could have "opened all the cold water faucets in the house" and removed the faucet stem without a major flood unless you already had an obstruction. Either the main valve you could not find is broken or the PRV is defective.

hj said:

There is no way you could have "opened all the cold water faucets in the house" and removed the faucet stem without a major flood unless you already had an obstruction. Either the main valve you could not find is broken or the PRV is defective.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't say it was a flood...but the water shot from one end of the bath tub to the other(6ft). Luckily it was caught by the tub. But it was an increadible amount of pressure.