Back Flow Preventer Spitting

[Rich Riddle]

I have a backflow preventer that is spitting out water. I replaced all the gaskets, springs, and seals and it still spits out. Anyone have any ideas what might cause this to happen?

[Tom M King]

Do you mean one on a wall hydrant? Is the water coming out from the BP, or around the stem of the faucet handle? Brand of faucet-should be on the handle?

[Rich Riddle]

It's a Wilkins 975XL just like in the photograph below. I can turn on the inlet valve to allow water in the back flow preventer but keep the outlet valve turned off and thus prohibiting the water from going to the watering system. When I do this, the back flow preventer does the identical thing as when both valves are open. This makes me think something is wrong on the water inlet side of the system.

9C2A3ECEB7A0F126672ECA953A0409C6_975XL+blue.detail.jpg

[John M Wilson]

I have a Watts unit that is similar to yours. After a few years of our very highly chlorinated water, it starts to "moan" and I have to rebuild it.

One time, after a re-build, mine "spit" water too.

I took it back apart, very carefully greased all of the moving parts, made sure I had the check valve seals pointed the right way, and the springs in the right locations, put it back together, and it stopped spitting. I'm not really sure what I did wrong the first time, but once I got it to stop, I stopped messing with it.

Does yours spit continuously, or just when the water pressure changes dramatically?

[Tom M King]

Sorry, I've never been in one of those.

[Rich Riddle]

Situation Solved.

I looked up the problem and found this tutorial for the exact model. It would likely help with most models though. It seems as though if there is any debris that enters the system it gets caught up in the body. It's explained in the short video at about the 1:55 mark. Thanks for all your assistance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctYonNGogIE

[Rich Enders]

Rich,

Yours looks similar to the one at the supply connection to our home. Our (10 year old) unit was leaking and our plumber said it had to be replaced. $100 for the unit, and $100 for the labor.

[Tom M King]

Amazing what you can find videos for now. I fixed our washer and dryer (twice) simply, after watching a few minutes of youtube, found thanks to Google.