I had a sprinkler system problem that required several repairs and in that 
process I seem to have gotten a lot of debris in the pipes inside my home. 
In fact, the final repair was made (by me) and when I turned on the water at 
the street, there was no pressure at all! I fooled with this and that then 
when I was in the garage, I heard sound from the pipes I never heard before. 
The main cutoff for the house is there behind the water heater so I closed 
the valve all the way, then reopened it and in that process I must have 
knocked the plug loose because I now had pressure albeit weak. Since them, 
I've had to flush out all the toilet fill valves. I've taken off the 
aerators of most faucets to clean out the screens. But I still have pressure 
problems. The main one now (or next on the list) is the washing machine. 
When the rinse is set to cold, it would probably take a 30 minutes to fill 
the tub. I've put it on warm so we can at least do laundry. How would I go 
about flushing the clog in a washing machine, and does anyone have any 
suggestions about how to flush out the whole system? 

On Apr 21, 7:17=A0am, "Jim Jones" 
wrote:
> I had a sprinkler system problem that required several repairs and in tha=
t
> process I seem to have gotten a lot of debris in the pipes inside my home=
.
> In fact, the final repair was made (by me) and when I turned on the water=
 at
> the street, there was no pressure at all! I fooled with this and that the=
n
> when I was in the garage, I heard sound from the pipes I never heard befo=
re.
> The main cutoff for the house is there behind the water heater so I close=
d
> the valve all the way, then reopened it and in that process I must have
> knocked the plug loose because I now had pressure albeit weak. Since them=
,
> I've had to flush out all the toilet fill valves. I've taken off the
> aerators of most faucets to clean out the screens. But I still have press=
ure
> problems. The main one now (or next on the list) is the washing machine.
> When the rinse is set to cold, it would probably take a 30 minutes to fil=
l
> the tub. I've put it on warm so we can at least do laundry. How would I g=
o
> about flushing the clog in a washing machine, and does anyone have any
> suggestions about how to flush out the whole system?

My washer hose came with a screen filter that was clogged and slow for
years until I found out, remove both hose fittings maybe you will be
lucky and find a clogged screen filter. To avoid future issues whole
house filters at the incomming main are very cheap, mine has a clear
housing to see any buildup.

 To avoid future issues whole house filters at the incomming main are very 
cheap, mine has a clear
housing to see any buildup.

I need to do something, yes. When I put my sprinkler system in 20 years ago 
(myself) I dug down to the footing where the water line enters the crawl 
space (it's a blue plastic line about 1/2") cut the line and installed a 
compression T where the T went to my sprinkler system. After 20 years the 
plastic pipes broke, then when I fixed them the blue plastic started coming 
loose from that compression T so I had to fix this 3 times before it was 
really "fixed". So in the times when the system was broken there were 
several hours of time that the water was flowing out through the dirt before 
the leak was detected. I was very surprised at how much dirt can get into 
the system. 

On Apr 21, 7:17=A0am, "Jim Jones" 
wrote:
> I had a sprinkler system problem that required several repairs and in tha=
t
> process I seem to have gotten a lot of debris in the pipes inside my home=
.
> In fact, the final repair was made (by me) and when I turned on the water=
 at
> the street, there was no pressure at all! I fooled with this and that the=
n
> when I was in the garage, I heard sound from the pipes I never heard befo=
re.
> The main cutoff for the house is there behind the water heater so I close=
d
> the valve all the way, then reopened it and in that process I must have
> knocked the plug loose because I now had pressure albeit weak. Since them=
,
> I've had to flush out all the toilet fill valves. I've taken off the
> aerators of most faucets to clean out the screens. But I still have press=
ure
> problems. The main one now (or next on the list) is the washing machine.
> When the rinse is set to cold, it would probably take a 30 minutes to fil=
l
> the tub. I've put it on warm so we can at least do laundry. How would I g=
o
> about flushing the clog in a washing machine, and does anyone have any
> suggestions about how to flush out the whole system?

To begin with; you should have a double check valve on lawn sprinklers
to avoid contaminating the house water, most places require this.
If you use chemicals on your lawn, you probably have some of that too.
since the main shut off helped, try that again, & open the nearest
faucet and let it run for like an hour.

To begin with; you should have a double check valve on lawn sprinklers
to avoid contaminating the house water, most places require this.
If you use chemicals on your lawn, you probably have some of that too.
since the main shut off helped, try that again, & open the nearest
faucet and let it run for like an hour.


My sprinkler valves are anti-siphon. I thought that was all that was 
necessary.