Working the Columbia River last spring, a sudden silt shift nearly clogged the pump.

Riley King · 2026-03-29T11:10:04.165876+00:00

Now I always keep a high-pressure water lance on the deck ready to go, not stored below. What's your quick fix for a surprise silt plug?

ivanbrown6mo ago

Yeah, keeping that lance on deck is the only way to go. I learned that the hard way too, fighting a plug with the backup pump while my main one was choking. My quick fix is a short section of two-inch hose with a threaded cap on one end. If the strainer starts to load up, I can pop it on a discharge outlet and blast water backwards through the system. It's ugly, but it has cleared a partial plug more than once when I couldn't get to the source.

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sethp266mo ago

Forget the backup pump, that reverse-flush hose idea is clever. How do you make sure you don't blow a fitting or hose off when you hit it with that much pressure?

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schmidt.reese6mo ago

Honestly though, is a silt plug that big of a deal? Seems like a lot of extra gear for a maybe problem.

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