The perfect storm

@tmcgahey Sorry about your back. Been there.

When a diaphragm is closed the water pressure is on top of the diaphragm pushing down. There is no pressure on the down stream side unless it’s being held there by an uphill slope or check valve. If the leak you have is a main line leak and leaking enough to prevent pressure from rising, it could keep the valve from closing.

Well, after recovering from step, my daughter getting her tonsils out, and having some complications after surgery, I finally had time to get back to this repair. Still puzzled why i couldn’t get the valves to shut off after replacing all the guts. After a little more exploratory digging I found the root of my problem…

A 1" line runs along the 3 drip zone in my backyard, and takes a surprising path to feed a hose bibb in the back side of the backyard.

Quick repair, and obviously the leak stopped, and all the valves shut off within a few seconds of the system presurizing. I opted for a flex pipe repair since there is a lot of roots in the area, which originally caused break (and a pretty bad glue joint)

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@tmcgahey Well done!