sounds like you have trash in a valve or a bad valve. if turnign the sprinlers on for a few minutes does not clear it, then the zone valve is bad and needs to be repaired or replaced.

tay, 1) Maybe, if you want the maximum pressure compared to taking water off your outside faucet which has its pressured reduced along with your house to about 45 psi. Usually the street pressure is somewhere between 55 to 70 psi. If the street pressure is too high then the pressure needs to lowered to about 60 psi with a pressure reducer. Lower pressure means more zones you will need to operate with your controller. 2) It is fine. It just means a higher velocity through the smaller pipe which causes more noise. If buried not a real problem. A larger pipe means less velocity and a larger maximum flow rate for a certain system pressure. 3) This question is confusing. Are you asking about installing a compression tee at your house mainline and then bring 1" pvc from there. Is that your mainline that feed your house at the bottom of the excavation. It looks small. Usually mainlines to houses are 5/8" up to 1". That line looks like a 1/2" main. My suggestion is test your system pressure then lets discuss you answers again. Aloha

Both the International Residential Code and the Uniform Plumbing Code have approved the following continuos roll plastic pipe for potable water service lines. (Service is defined as the direct buried line from the well or municipal main to the structure). P.E. Pipe (Polyethelene Pipe - standard color is Black) P.B. Pipe (Polybutelene Pipe - standard color is Gray) PEX Plastic Tubing- colors vary by manufacturer and size- Principaly Red, Blue or Yellow PEX-AL-PEX Plastic Pipe- colors vary by manufacturer and size- Principaly Red, Blue or Yellow P.E. & P.B. pipe is generally connected by means of a Nylon or Brass Barb Fitting. (Barb fittings have a male nipple with raised ridges that is inserted inside the pipe and held in place by means of a stainless steel hose clamp similar to an automotive radiator clamp) PEX & PEX-AL-PEX requires the use of a PEX connector which is similar to the Barb fitting but held in place by a metal clamp ring that is compressed by means of a special PEX connector compression tool. Shark Bite press on fittings have now received code acceptance by both the UPC & the IRC and may be used on any of the above mentioned types of pipe. Continuouse roll plastic pipe is now considered the material of choice because it is: 1. Less expensive 2. Quicker and easier to install 3. No underground joints to fail 4. Impervious to soil acids that may deteriorate copper or galvanized pipe. 5. Will tolerate a freeze without breaking. Note: The water line to my own house was installed with Polyethelene pipe and nylon barb fittings in 1961 and to date there have been no failures of any sort.

I doubt very seriously if the failure of the humidifier supply tube is a result of heat. First of all, let us consider the temperature of your incoming cold water supply. The mean average of the earths crust is 55degF (geothermal temperature of the crust). Soil is a rather poor insulator so the surface soil then cools proportional to the ambient air temperature. While the crust is 55degF the actual surface of the soil will freeze for a short depth which we define as the "frost depth". While the frost depth is the deepest point at which freezing commonly occurs it must be understood that from that depth the temperatures increase gradually from freezing temp(32degF) to the natural geothermal temp(55degF). Typically geothermal temp occurs at approximately twice the frost depth. In order to protect our water lines from freezing the codes require that we bury the line 6" below the frost line thus when the dirt is frozen to the frost depth the average temperate at the water line may be only slightly above freezing (34degF+). Fresh water reaches a maximum density of 231cu.in per gallon at 39degF. There is a very coplex formula to determine the rate of linear expansion but for the sake of illustration let us use the maximum here. When water is expanded from its maximum density of 39degF to the boiling point it expands by approximately 40:1 thus we could say the physical volume of a 40gal. water heater expands by one gallon. To put this in perspective consider that a 1/2" pipe has a volume of one gallon for each 98 linear feet. We must now keep in mind that water is not compressible therefore as the volume expands it must go somewhere. Normally the increase in volume is compensated by physically pushing some of the water back to the municipal main or to your well pump pressure tank however if we install a check valve in the line there is no place for the additional volume to go. In this case the excess volume would by necessity be relieved by discharging through the water heater Temperature & Pressure Relief Valve (T&P valve) BUT let us consider another potential problem here. Imagine for the moment that your T&P discharge line discharges out through the wall of your house. The discharge end of the line is then exposed to atmospheric temperature and in a worst case scenario the outside end of that line could freeze shut. At this point there would be no place for the additional volume to be released and it could result in blowing out fittings or valves or rupturing a pipe or the water heater vessel. Now keep in mind that the T&P valve is a spring loaded valve that is set to release when the pressure reaches 150psi and most likely the plastic line to your humidifier is failing slightly before the internal pressure is sufficient to release the T&P valve. On the other hand, if you did not have that plastic line there is a very strong likelyhood that the increased volume could be relieved by blowing out a compression fitting at a fixture angle stop, a pipe joint might fail or premature failure of Bibb Washers in your faucetts. The proper solution is to install an expansion tank on the water heater side of the check valve to absorb the increased volume. Installing an expansion tank is quite simple. You simply install a Tee on the cold water line with a male thread adapter on the Tee stub out, then screw the expansion tank onto the thread adapter.