[billjar]

I have a 2 year old new home. I discovered 1 year ago that my spare bathroom, which never gets used, did not have any cold water in the shower. The water works great in the rest of the house. I took apart the faucet (pioneer) but could not find any clogs. A plumber came out was here for 15 min and had it working again. Unfortunantely I was not here so did not see the repair. A couple of months went by and it happened again. The water is very hard here's as I am in a rural community. Once again I took it apart tried to clean it out, put it back together and it started working again. It has happened again and once again I think it is hard water build up. Is there any trick to try and flush out the pipe.

[speedball1]

No magic tricks to cure hard water except a water softener. Remove the cartridge. Check and clear the inlet ports and soak it in CRL or Lime Away for 1/2 hour. Reassemble and test. Good luck, Tom

[ballengerb1]

So a 1 year old faucet got plugged with calcium deposits, that really is hard water. Soft Water Companies will evaluate the grains of hardness in your water and give you a bid. I'll bet some of the debris is coming from your well to not just calcium. I'd recoomend that you consider installing a whole house filter right where the water pipe enters the home. A good filter can run about $200 but I think it may cure much of your problems. If it were simply calcium build up you'd see it elsewhere too like in the shower head and aerators. How do they look.

[albinfla]

Just to clarify ballengerb1's answer... if it is sediment, a filter will help. However, you will have to change the cartridge just as frequently as you are cleaning the aerators. However, if it is calcium hardness, a filter will do just about nothing. Speedball's response suggesting softener is the way to go.

I personally am not a fan of cartridge filters except for under the sink. The reason I don't like them is that they usually cause some pressure loss to the house, and most people wait way too long to replace them. If you get your water quality tests, I can tell you what treatment would be best. You can even use a good pool kit for most parameters. Test PH, alkalinity, tds, chlorine, hardness, iron, manganese. If you call a water treatment company, make sure they test those parameters. Or, you could send me a sample and I could test it for you.

Al

[Milo Dolezal]

You got good advices above from Mark, Tom, and Al.

In addition: take a sample of your water down to Sears. They do free water analysis. (at least in my area they do... ) They'll tell you how hard your water is and what you need to do / buy to remove minerals from your water. Sears sells everything you will need to deal with this problem.

Also, Sears sells Genius III + water softener that we think is one of the best. We have installed several hundreds of them with no complaints.

[ballengerb1]

Agreed but I assume by rural you are on a well so I rnew my suggestion o adding a whole house filter immediatelly inside the home.