Hi all,
This hiccup was new to me and so I’m sharing in case it helps somebody else. I’m on a “big-for-me” job for a local resort and it’s one whereas the distance from the property’s water source to my buffer tank is looooong. Like, 450’ long. I’ve got every water hose I have in use, including one from my wife’s garden and one I borrowed from the resort maintenance staff.
I got set up and started cleaning 25,000s.f. of decking and I soon noticed as time went by that my 275-gal buffer tank was falling behind quicker than normal. I checked for all the usual things: kinks and leaks in the water hoses, etc. Only after a long time and a lot of head-scratching did I think to check my Hudson float valve on the intake side of my buffer tank. Here are some pics of the mess.
I rinsed it well and all worked fine after that. I’ve been cleaning for a couple months this season without similar trouble, so I’m guessing that this just started on this job, where some gunk in the borrowed hose found its way to trouble.
Next time I’ll run some water through a new or borrowed hose, to first flush out anything which might cause trouble.
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Yeah….common problem on those. I check mine periodically, good find though. Back up and running……that’s a lot of decking, wow,
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Do you run a filter before buffer tank? I use a see thru filter and I’m amazed how often I clean it out….it has cut down on float issues, haven’t had any in a while. Just a thought.
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No, only a big-■■■ filter on the 1.5" line from by buffer tank. I always figured that crud coming In to the buffer would just end up in the bottom of the tank (to be flushed on occasion) or in the filter after the tank.
I guess my float valve kind of IS my pre-tank filter 
Skip ahead to the 11 min mark … I did this last season and noticed a significant improvement in fill time, but also didn’t have to clean out as many bugs etc as they were able to pass through as well. Only recommend doing if you also have a filter on the outlet of the buffer though.
Looks like that was acting like a filter, 
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Did same thing couple years ago….
Happened to me last year. I hooked up to water but tank wasn’t filling much. I unscrewed the valve and these dried leaves were packed in there. Seems these little bees or whatever try to overwinter in the spigots and pack it with leaves, so now I turn on faucets for a few seconds first.
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