[Bill888]

I have lived in my home, that has its own well, for ~10 yrs and have always had good pressure and water flow in my house. I recently installed a new kitchen faucet, which was a replacement of the same make and model that had suddenly lost nearly all flow, but only on the hot side. I thought the hot line into the faucet had gotten a kink or something. Anyway, after installing the replacement, everything worked well for about a week or so, and then suddenly, the pressure dropped throughout the house, starting in a bathroom far from the kitchen, then progressively losing pressure in most of the other faucets in the house. The kitchen faucet was one of the last to go south. I checked the pressure gauge on the pump storage tank, and it did as it should, kicked on a 40 and ramped to 60 and shut off. How do I troubleshoot this?

[hkstroud]

same make and model that had suddenly lost nearly all flow, but only on the hot side.

the pressure dropped throughout the house,

Is that also on the hot side only?

[Bill888]

The drop in pressure is on both hot & cold. I did some more troubleshooting, and have found that every faucet's aerator is getting plugged up with what looks like a white fiberous material. Not sure where this is coming from. After cleaning the aerators out the water flows normally. Waiting to see if they clog up again. Any idea on how to clean other fixtures like, toilets, dishwasher, clothes washer, sprinkler system, etc.

[speedball1]

I have found that every faucet's aerator is getting plugged up with what looks like a white fiberous material.

This "white fiberous material", can you crumble it when you rub it between your fingers or is it hard plastic? Let me know. Tom

[Bill888]

The white fibrous material does not crumble. It's sort of like fiberglass. In addition to this fibrous material, there are also small rock-like debris that I'm thinking are mineral deposits, colored black, blue, brown.

[amricca]

Sounds like your dip tube is deteriorating, that happened to me (same things you are describing). Speedball will know for sure, he's the plumbing expert.

[Bill888]

What is a dip tube?

[amricca]

It is the tube that pulls the hot water out of the tank. It is inside the tank and is replacable, although I ended up getting a whole new tank because mine was old.

How a water heater dip tube works and what it looks like.

[Bill888]

THANKS for the info on the dip tube! I'll check this out when I get home tonight. I'm surprised that it would be failing as my hot water tank was just replaced only a year ago. I cannot remember the make and model (I'm not home right now) but it is one that uses propane. Do you know if this is a common problem with propane hot waater heaters?

[ballengerb1]

Dip tubes can fail in all types of water heaters. Its an age thing and not a function of what fuel is used.

[amricca]

I thought it was only an issue for water heaters that we made around 1993, at least that is what I read somewhere. So if yours is new maybe it is something else, but it sure sounds like the dip tube. Let's see what speedball has to say about this.