Found a weird trick for clearing suction line clogs near the intake

Last week on the Lake Erie project, we kept pulling up thick mats of zebra mussels. They'd jam the suction line every few hours. My partner yelled, 'Try the washdown pump in reverse!' We hooked it to the intake side and ran it for 30 seconds. It blasted the gunk back out into the water column. Saved us from pulling the whole section. Anyone else have a quick fix for mussel clogs?

3 comments

3 Comments

robin_roberts842mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, running things backwards can work in a pinch. We had a similar issue with pond weed in a cooling loop. A quick shot of compressed air back through the intake line usually breaks it free without having to open anything up. Just keep the pressure low so you don't blow a fitting.

jana_fox503mo ago

That trick saved my pump last summer.

wilson.sam3mo ago

Blasted the gunk back out" is such a good fix. It's like @jana_fox50 said, the best solutions are usually just using what you already have in a new way. Makes you wonder what else we could fix by just running things backwards, right?