Added hose bib help!

[Jayweis]

Hello,

I am new here and I have a question regarding a hose near my pool. I’ll provide as many details as possible!

I just moved into a house in Goodyear, AZ. I have a heated pool/spa that is 6 feet at the deepest. Gallon estimate was ~11,000. My home inspector told me that there are 2 hose bibs per house, however mine has a third near the pool, which was apparently added after the fact. It was quite convenient to have a hose near the pool for deck washing and skimmer cleaning purposes.

Fast forward to yesterday, and there is suddenly minimal pressure coming out of this hose (think trickling instead of blasting). I unscrewed the bib and dug through the rocks a little. Turns out that this water was coming from a buried pvc pipe. There is no clear pvc attachment at either of the other hose bibs, nor at the pool pump.

My issues here are:

1) Where did the pressure go? (I don’t believe that this hose bib is attached to the irrigation system either)

2) Should I be worried that there may be a leak underground?

3) Since this hose bib was added, it may not be approved by the city, correct? Or would they be able to help?

4) Does anybody else have a hose near the pool with a similar experience?

At at any rate, thank you in advance for any help I get!!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jay,

Welcome to TFP... a great place to find the answers to all your "Gas Filled" questions...

If you had a leak that shut off all the water going to a hose bib, I'm pretty sure you would know it...

I suspect it is tied into your sprinkler system and that some valve is shut off.

How about posting a pic that shows the extra hose bib and your equipment pad...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jayweis]

Jim, thanks for the welcome and quick reply! It’s dark now, so I’ll add a reply with pictures tomorrow. Thanks again!

 

[Dirk]

You mention "city" so you are probably on city water, which means you have a water meter. Do you know where it is? Make sure all your faucets and hose bibs are off, not doing laundry or running dishwasher. No water use inside (toilets, showers, etc). Go find your water meter, take off the lid and find the dial (there may be another flip cover over the dial). Look for a little triangle or asterisk shape. That is your flow indicator. It is very sensitive. If anything in your house or garden is leaking, even a few drips, that flow indicator will turn. If you have a big leak, it'll be turning very fast. If it isn't moving, you don't have any leaks!

See the asterisk? Sometimes it's a triangle shape:

 

[Jayweis]

Thanks Dirk, I’ll check that out.

Im back with pictures!

Hose bib 1 (front yard w/ main shut off)

Viewing Image: hose bib 1.jpg - Trouble Free Pool

Hose bib 2 (back yard attached to house)
Viewing Image: hose bib 2.jpg - Trouble Free Pool

Hose bib 3 (featuring a small pool of water today after I did some gentile digging. PVC pipe has a purple stripe. Not sure what it means)

Viewing Image: hose bib 3.jpg - Trouble Free Pool


Hose bib 3 again, wider angle
Viewing Image: bib 3 far.jpg - Trouble Free Pool

Pool pump, overhead
Viewing Image: pump, overhead.jpg - Trouble Free Pool

Irrigation box 1 (front yard)

Irrigation box 2 (backyard) (upload limit was 5, not sure how to add irrigation box pictures)

The lids of the the irrigation boxes were wet this morning, which I do not think is common.

There has never been a pool of water near that troublesome hose bib. Im not sure if that’s because I dug and there is no dirt to soak up the water. Standing water doesn’t last long in Arizona. I dug gently essentially using the butt end of a fork so as to not disrupt anything.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Dirk]

OK. I have something for you to try.

Hose bib #1 looks to be where your water is coming into the house. That valve there is likely your house shut off valve. Coming off that line, before the shutoff valve, is a vacuum breaker, and looks to be a proper pressure vacuum breaker. It feeds the pipe that runs back into the ground. This could lead to your landscape irrigation, your pool autofill (if you have one) or that non-functioning valve. You were looking for PVC at one of your hose bibs, but a typical installation is what you have there. Copper running into the ground, that converts to PVC underground. PVC is not intended to be in direct sunlight, so they use copper above ground and convert underground. Please note that breaker valve has two shutoff valves, they are both in the on (flowing) position, parallel to the pipe.

Hose bib #2 also has a vacuum breaker, leading off to somewhere, underground. This could also be landscape irrigation, your pool autofill (if you have one) or that non-functioning valve. But... note the shutoff valves on that vacuum breaker. At least one of those is in the off (non-flowing) position (I can't make out the other one). If that breaker is the one that leads to your mystery hose bib, then there's your fix. Just turn the shut off valves (both of them) to the on position (parallel to the pipe).

See what that does...

The lid on my irrigation box, which houses some valves, often is wet. I thought I had a leak, but I don't. Sometimes the ground in that box is caked dry and the lid is still wet. I'm not sure, but that condensation probably means nothing at all.

Of note: hard to tell in pic of bib 2, but the pic of bib 1 shows the bib itself has a type of back flow preventer on it (that little brass thing). So whoever setup all that plumbing, the bib gizmos and the two big vacuum breakers (wherever they lead), did you a solid and put in a very robust back flow prevention system. Kudos.

If one of those breakers does, in fact, lead to your mystery valve, and you don't have an autofill system, then that little bib sticking out of the ground is the one you should use to fill your pool. It is well protected, back-flow-wise, and is appropriate to use for your pool.

BTW, all those ports sticking out of those two big breaker valves, along with their dual shutoff valves, are there to facilitate the testing of the back flow preventers in those valves. You could (should) have them tested periodically to ensure they are OK and "on the job."

 

[Jayweis]

Wow Dirk, thank you so much!! I had been fiddling with the shut off valves once I saw the puddle by the hose bib (#3) and I accidentally turned off my auto fill! That could have been a disaster, I’m adding water with the hose as we speak because it was so low the skimmer was sucking air.

Still no no pressure from the actual hose bib though this thing is gonna be the death of me..

 

[Dirk]

OK, so the vacuum breaker valve coming off one of the hose bibs goes to your auto fill. Do you know where the other one goes to?

 

[Jayweis]

The vacuum breaker in the front is set to the same positions as the one in the back, which is now functional thanks to your help. I called the water company and left a message to see if they had more info for me, whether it is a diagram of piping, or something on their end. I've been searching everywhere, and this seems like a very uncommon issue.