Most people have over 50 gallons of drinking water in their hot water heater. There is a garden hose attachment on the bottom of the tank that will release the water.
Opening a hot water sink facet will vent air and allow the water to flow faster out of the tank.
If you think the city water is contaminated, turn off the water to the house first so bad water wont enter the tank.
If you want to maintain water pressure for the toilets (contaminated city water), you have to disconnect the tank’s inlet and outlet pipes from the house. You have to remove both lines! Remove one water heater flex pipe (inlet) completely, and remove second flex pipe (outlet) from tank and attach to the nipple on the wall from where the (inlet) first flex pipe was. Now you can turn the water on. You see, turning off the gate valve on the hot water tank’s inlet pipe alone will not prevent contamination of the tank! Most bathroom/kitchen facets mix hot and cold, which will backflow contaminated city water into the hot water heater’s outlet pipe. I guess another way is to close that inlet gate valve on the tank and then close every hot water valve on every sink in the house and washing machine too, but I bet your inlet gate valve is frozen open and you couldn’t close it anyhow.
Tip: open pressure relief valve on top of tank to flush out sediment resting on the bottom of the tank on regular bases.

I have a very large garden and it usually takes me around 5 or 6 trips back and forth with a watering can just to go through it once, and I usually need to water twice a day (it gets pretty hot / dry where I live…), and it has gotten SO annoying that I just can’t bare it anymore, walking back and forth and back and forth just to water. Is there any way I can make a hose work without a hookup? I’ve heard of things where you can connect it to a sink, I know the water pressure wouldn’t be great but would it work? Is there any alternative?

Note:, the previous owner of my house, the one who built the house didn’t ever even think about gardening, so they didn’t add a hose to the house. Problematic considering I’m a huge fan of gardening. The way everything works and how money works I can’t add a hose hook up, so that’s not an option.

I tried to flush my well water system today. I poured a water and bleach combination into my well. I ran all my faucets for about 10 minutes until I smelled bleach then let the system sit for about 5 hours. I then ran all the faucets very slowly for about 1 hour. I was outside then noticed my garden hose wasn’t spitting water out. I went inside and the same was happening with my faucets. I immediately shut everything off thinking that I had drained my well. I have waited for almost 2 hours now and still nothing. The water pressure gage on the holding tank shows about 25 psi (normally it is right in that neighborhood) I have noticed the pump circuit is making a buzzing noise for 2 seconds then shutting off. Did I screw something up or should I wait to see until the morning?
it is a submersable pump. The buzzing noise I am hearing is coming from the circuit in my basement.

the water pressure in my house varies from room to room. I have a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath split-level house. The water pressure in the 1/2 bath (lower level), laundry room, and one full bath (hallway) is fine. The water pressure in the kitchen and shower in the other full is extremely low/weak. In addition, the water in the kitchen tastes like you are drinking from a garden hose (tastes fine from all other faucets). Would replacing the faucet in the kitchen help with the pressure and/or taste? I have a pretty basic gooseneck faucet on there now (american standard). I tried replacing the hoses in the kitchen last year and switched from white to stainless steel. That seemed to help the taste initially, but the water now tastes as bad as it ever has.

If this would not fix the taste and/or pressure, any ideas what might? Once again, the pressure and taste are fine throughout the house, with the pressure being low only in the kitchen and one shower and taste bad in only the kitchen. Thanks in advance for any tips!

I am having a new hydro seed lawn put in next week and I plan on running 3 sprinklers to keep the entire area watered and moist. My problem is, I have a well and I do not have enough water pressure to run more than one sprinkler at a time. I do have a timer with four zones so I can run each sprinkler one after the other, but with three sessions a day that will take forever. Is there any way I can put a booster at the spigot to run at least two at a time? Possibly even all three at once? I figure if I can run a pressure washer with no problem, I should be able to supply that kind of PSI to three sprinklers. Thanks!

My house has decent water pressure if i’m only using one faucet. But if i’m using a faucet and flush a toilet then the faucet flows much slower than originally; the more water utilities i use the less flow i get out of each utility.

And, for instance: When i’m using garden hose, and i first open the hose nozzle it shoots water say 20 feet; but it quickly goes from shooting 20′ to 2′. Let off the nozzle and i can feel water hose build up pressure.

This is on city water system.

I popped off the cover on the water meter (hoping to find a valve in there half closed) and the electrical line going from the ‘auto meter reader’ disappears into water.

Is the water meter supposed to be under water?

Any help?
Yes it is existing problem.

I pumped the water out of the ‘meter well’ and found the drain pvc tubes are clogged in there. I emailed the city to fix drain; and asked for them to check pressure/flow on their end.

House was built in 1952 i think…. so pretty old. Interior plumbing is ‘newer’ than that though; no idea on age of outdoor water line. This problem has been occurring (and slowly getting a bit worse) since i bought it 3 years ago. I have not been able to locate where the water enters the house.

House is on slab.

Could new line be run under slab? Or could new line be run to existing exterior hose bib to feed the water system? (i know that sounds totally backwards but maybe work?)

Thanks for the help.

Will be getting a plumber involved after city okay’s their end. (isn’t there some sort of pressure valve on their end also that could be hanging?)
Noticed the water meter body was stamped "5/8", so i’m assuming my main line is 10/16".

We moved into a 40+ year old house and did some remodeling on our own. In the kitchen we installed a new countertop, sink and faucet. The faucet water pressure starts out OK and then dwindles to a trickle after some use. After a bunch of trial and error I figured out that the problem was in the valve of the faucet (forgive me if my terminology is off). It’s a 3-hole Moen faucet (one hole has the handle, one the faucet spout and the third is the sprayer).

Inside the faucet is a brass valve with three holes. One leads to the faucet, one connects to a hose for the sprayer and one is the inlet for the water from the handle. When I disconnect this valve, the water pressure from the inlet hose is very strong, so I know the problem is in the valve itself. I basically take the valve outside and spray it through with a garden hose sprayer. That seems to solve the problem as I then reassemble the faucet and water flows well. But, again, after some use (1-3 weeks?) it eventually slows to a trickle and I have to repeat the process.

I know that the underlying cause is our galvanized piping. We get a lot of the rusty granulated stuff in our aerators and I’m almost sure that is what is gumming up the valve.

OK, given all of that information, is there anything I can do to avoid taking the faucet apart every couple of weeks other than re-piping the whole house? Is there a better faucet/valve that would be more resistant to this clogging?

Any advice appreciated.

I am looking for a way to pressurize water from a pond or a pool. I would like it to have similar pressure as my garden hose water pressure. The pressure gauge on my home water tank is 60 PSI, but I would accept more or slightly less. I would even like the water outlet connector to accept a common garden hose. Is there a complete system like this that has a hose I can drop in a pool or pond and get Garden hose water pressure out the other side or do I have to build it all myself? If so can you suggest a the pump and tank I could use. Do I even need a tank? Could I just turn the pump on when I want to use it? What kind of pressure comes out of 1 horsepower pump when it is on? or 2 hp? is there some kind of scale of horsepower vs pressure for common electric water pumps? Finally, I would like to keep the complete system price to under a few hundred dollars.

Have a 5000 gallon water tank with a 2" valve at the bottom. I have the valve reduced to a garden hose size however when I turn on the valve the water pressure just doesn’t seem to be high enough to run my houses water system for when the power goes out. Is there a different way I should be doing this? Certain kind of pump I should have? Trying to do this with the least amount of power possible.

I ask this because I’m building a flower garden and the only way to water it is by running a hose from inside the house. The water pressure isn’t too great unless I mix in some hot water with the cold (kind of like a warm – but not hot – shower).

Is this bad?