Shallow water pump, source is water fed from cistern filled manually from hauling city water in tank in pickup truck bed. The pump is "direct jet", no pressure tank. Supposedly self priming, but it needs primed when we run out of water (not uncommon). Steel/aluminum? cistern has some rust spots and I've cleaned fragments of whatever from the kitchen faucet screen before. A few months ago the hot water line in that sink started reduced flow but cold was fine. Now since last priming after running out of water last week the sink jerks and stutters water flow along with banging noise in the pump room bunker with both hot and cold water lines. Neither showers, toilets, bathroom sink, dishwasher or washing machine have the same effect. Not sure if it's relevant but it seems the city water here is not soft. Glasses get cloudy and faucet/shower heads get a bit of white stuff on them (I've only ever known soft water).
Sounds kinda like water hammer. Can you work the valve several times? That will likely be choke point where any chunks are randomly and drastically messing with your flow. What kind of pipes do you have? Might drain your water heater also. Depending on what is making the water hard can cause a build up at the bottom of the tank. Running out of water and refilling will stir that crud up and send it through your system. Check the screen on the tank outlet too if you’re there anyway. Owl
Agreed it sounds like water hammer. First being at the sink only IMO when you got everything running again that was the first faucet you used and all the debris wound up at that faucet. I would shut off the valves under the sink and then remove the hot and cold valves at the faucet. Turn the under sink shut offs back on slowly and flush out the line. This will be tricky because it is going to want to shoot to the ceiling. Then reinstall the faucet valves and remove the screen on the faucet itself. Run the water and flush that out too. For the future you might want to add an expansion tank to eliminate water hammer in the lines. Water does not compress and the expansion tank will be forgiving to you fixtures down stream. Running the pump dry can be dangerous for your hot water tank because if the water level dropped below the heating element when the element comes on it will pop and be dead and need replaced. The element needs to be submerged to work.
Thank you guys! I googled water hammer after spotted owl mentioned it, seems to fit. Just much faster pulse/bang than the videos. I'll see what I can do, IIRC SS lines from copper to faucet down there. Fingers crossed! I'm going to wait for a break in from the freezing temps because Murphy's Law is always lurking.
