Water Line Help

[jorge3000]

Need some trouble shooting advice. We are hooked up to city water at our site. There is good preasure and no blockages to the camper, however the preasure at all spouts are very weak to almost nothing...just a drip. The exception here is the toilet...it has great preasure for some reason. I figure that means that there is a blockage in the line somewhere. I took one of the faucets off and opens it up and found traces of mineral buildup. Is there a safe chemical, cleaner or idea that someone knows of to help open up the line? I believe this blockage is going to be somewhere after the water pump.

[afidel]

I was talking about the home tank, but I did have a bit of crud in my HW tank in the trailer after 18 months. Replaced the annode rod and washed the bottom of the tank.

[myredracer]

afidel wrote:

myredracer wrote:
CLR may work better than vinegar. We have a lot of calcium in our well water at home and have to take all the aerators off and soak them in it at least once a year.

If you travel around and use water from unknown sources, at a minimum, a sediment filter could be a good idea.

I wish I knew what the science is behind calcium precipitating out on the aerators only and not inside piping. It will build up inside a HW tank tho. as I found out in a previous house on well water with a really high level of calcium in it. Plugged up the tank in just a couple of years. There aren't filters to remove calcium unfortunately.

That sludge buildup is a large part of why hot water tanks have a bottom drain, if you have highly mineralized water you need to flush the tank every 1-2 years.

Are you talking the tank at home or in an RV? Interestingly, while we have lots of calcium in our water here (had it tested a few times too) and there's a heavy buildup at the faucets, the HWT has never been a problem. It's a large tank and part of a hydronic heating system and doesn't have an element or burner inside it (boiler is next to it). It all get's serviced by a specialist plumber annually and he says the tank has always been fine.

[afidel]

myredracer wrote:
CLR may work better than vinegar. We have a lot of calcium in our well water at home and have to take all the aerators off and soak them in it at least once a year.

If you travel around and use water from unknown sources, at a minimum, a sediment filter could be a good idea.

I wish I knew what the science is behind calcium precipitating out on the aerators only and not inside piping. It will build up inside a HW tank tho. as I found out in a previous house on well water with a really high level of calcium in it. Plugged up the tank in just a couple of years. There aren't filters to remove calcium unfortunately.

That sludge buildup is a large part of why hot water tanks have a bottom drain, if you have highly mineralized water you need to flush the tank every 1-2 years.

[jorge3000]

The vinegar worked great! It looked like small stones inside the aerators, but they completely dissolved.

[myredracer]

CLR may work better than vinegar. We have a lot of calcium in our well water at home and have to take all the aerators off and soak them in it at least once a year.

If you travel around and use water from unknown sources, at a minimum, a sediment filter could be a good idea.

I wish I knew what the science is behind calcium precipitating out on the aerators only and not inside piping. It will build up inside a HW tank tho. as I found out in a previous house on well water with a really high level of calcium in it. Plugged up the tank in just a couple of years. There aren't filters to remove calcium unfortunately.

[westend]

It's OK to have some mineral deposit inside the faucet body. I've removed working faucets that were 50 yrs old+ and had a tan deposit across every surface, inside. Modern faucets may be more prone to getting clogged with debris because the way the valves are made but the aerator is the cause of most problems.

If you have the usual, original faucet set out, you may wish to replace it with a better faucet set and forget about trying to clean it out. What the RV mfgs put into the plumbing is frightfully cheap.

[jorge3000]

I took off all the ends of the faucets and they are all full of mineral composites. I have them soaking in the vingar and hopefully it will disolve all of it. The white plastic aerators look full of the minerals. Hopefully it will disolve and be ok, otherwise I guess I leave those out or replace the faucets...

[Old-Biscuit]

As suggested.......
Remove aerators from end of all faucets and clean
Remove shower handle/hose and clean it

With stuff removed turn on water and blow lines out to faucet/shower both hot/cold sides

[Cocky_Camper]

My guess would to be as mentioned and remove the screen and clean them out. Probably due to dirt or minerals in the hose.

[mobeewan]

There are three possible choices that I can think of offhand could be the problem. Minerals in the water, residue from the water heater if you're using an anode or sand from water supply hooked up at the city water connection.

[stickdog]

Remove the aerators and soak them in vinegar.

[downtheroad]

Clean the aerators.....easily unscrew.. probably full of gunk/deposits.