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Bugs and worms moving through the soil causes the dire below the box to move around. In addition, the wet-dry cycle between rain and dry seasons will cause the dirt to move and take over space inside the box.

Meant to say o cedar brooms. They do this on purpose so you’ll buy another one but I’m avoiding this brand from now on. I use the heads as whisk brooms as unless I find a narrower stick, it’s a no go.

Thanks, wasn't sure what the advantage of oil bath over a dry filter was. However, the engine on the video is on a leaf vacuum, so I'd assume it's being used in very dusty environments if it's used to load up yard waste into a truck or to suck up and grind leaves off a lawn during fall cleanup.

@@MittyNuke1 Ah, that's a good point, all I saw was "engine .. indoors ... duurr" 😂

@@MittyNuke1 Yes. Oil bath filters were on many cars from the 30s through the 60s, possibly even older than the 1930's. Even after paper filters were a newly created invention they were a dealer option on new cars you could order if you needed it. Rural drivers always used oil bath filters because it took the heavy gritty sand and dirt out of the air (remember paved roads were a luxury back then) and held it better, and could take a lot longer to fill up to capacity than a paper filter. There is never any need to remove and oil bath filter for a paper one.

I had a well and the box was full to the top with sand. I scooped out quite a lot down about 8 inches and at that point it started to get hard to get out, odd angle, the sand kept falling off the spade before I could even lift it. So I thought why not just wash the sand out with a hose. So I got the hose and turned it on full blast and the water coming out brought a ton of sand with it. Still nothing down there though at about 20 inches. So I kept going, but the deeper I went the more sand just feel back in and the water did not carry it out, it was what you might call diminishing returns. So I got out the pressure washer and used both the hose and the higher pressure wand to get it out. And down 24 inches about, there was no well but a damned gate valve. I still have not seen the pipe for which it is a shut off. Pretty much no amount of water is going to lift sand that far without it falling back down before it washes out. And it is odd. I was told that was the wellhead for the irrigation on my lot. There is even a siphon valve right next to it so obviously that is an irrigation item to prevent dirty water from getting sucked back into a main. My conclusion was that there may have been a well once upon a time, dedicated to the irrigation so a anti siphon was not needed, that means if there is an abandoned well it could be anywhere on the property but most likely close to the irrigation system valve boxes. Something went wrong with the well, maybe it burned the pump out, or collapsed. So the owner back then decided to switch to municipal feed and that is when they put in the gate valve and anti siphon and ran a pipe all the way around the house to the exact opposite side where the the well would have been near the valves. Back then in Florida there were no watering restrictions in this part of the state and water was basically flat fee. But since the house was built in 1991 the population has more than doubled, and we are strictly limited to two days per week, it is not cheap. The seller told me the water was on a well for sprinklers, so I had the badly deteriorated system fixed for about a grand, and ran it as much as I could given the restrictions to two days per week. Then I got my water bill and it went from 2,000 gallons the first month I was here to 19,000 gallons the second month! Not even the water cost so much as sewer because sewer is based on water use. But it was astronomical. The sprinkler zone valve boxes are on the north side of the house. I think there was a well over there by the solenoids for irrigation, but it was abandoned when the pump went out or whatever reason, water from the county was so cheap it was not worth fixing the well so they just switched to county water. They decided to use the original 6x6 foot pump room on the lanai for a half bath so moved the pool pump/filter into an exposed nook by the exterior of the fireplace on the north side of the house. Then tapped into municipal water on the south side where the main goes into the building and routed the new irrigation feed all the way around the house and pool, thus they needed the shut off gate valve and anti siphon. But it is a bad move because there are sprinkler heads higher than that anti siphon. I know the bathroom out by the pool was once a pump room because there is a hole large enough for several larger pipes to go through the wall facing the pool and this little patch of dirt and decorative rock that is now has an outdoor shower on the exterior wall of the old pumphouse, viola three bedroom THREE bath house rather than two. The hole is patched and you can't see it from the outside at all - they did a good job, but you can see under the sink where it used to be. Also, the large high "window" is just a wooden louver no glass, and the door is louvered as well, to let out the heat of the pumps. They put a 20'ish inch high little wall separating the lanai from the "shower" which never made sense unless it was to hide a bunch of pipes going into the "bathroom" that are no longer there. If it was for privacy 20 or so inches is just inadequate. They used it to block the view of a lot of plumbing. The lanai next to the pool is enormous, if you are sitting there you would be glad there are not a lot of pumps and plumbing to ruin the mood. And where the toilet/sink drain to the sewer pipe used to be where the water came in from the old well inside to old pump room. They used it for filling the pool and watering the grounds. The "shower" area is just a little square of dirt they put a couple concrete pavers on and decorated with fist sized stones. There is no drain, water from showers just goes into the ground. Some photos might explain a lot. I was unable to locate the actual well though so I called a well guy, he said his opinion is the lot never had a well. But, there is way too much wrong with that. Like old abandoned electrical conduits. Like why would they have put the Rain Bird (which substitutes for a pump controller if the well is dedicated to just irrigation, and by the way you don't need a pressure tank if the well is strictly for irrigation, you can control the flow and ON/OFF problem by stepping down pipe size in smaller zones) on the SE wall inside the garage, the main water feed on the south, the pipes routed all the way around to the valve boxes for the zones on the NE side of the house, and it is a 3,500+ sq ft house, we are talking a ton of extra wires and pipes to get to the valve boxes. So if the municipal water was always the main water source why not put the Rain Bird on the south wall of the garage, and the zone valves somewhere on the south or east side near the main line where the incoming water was tapped? Clearly the SOURCE of water was once on the same side of the house as the irrigation plumbing and valves. And the Rain Bird was put inside the garage as close to those as can be for convenience sake. You would not need an anti siphon since the house was on municipal water and the irrigation was the only thing on the well, so no need for gate valves and avoiding contamination. You should understand that this subdivision/HOA is close to 7,000 acres. It was a cattle ranch back in the day till it was sold and carved up for an upscale gated golf community. I suppose the old days the population of Florida was so low everything was on a huge scale, and land was cheap, with a lot of boom and bust. Water was cheap, this area is quasi swamp with a lot of rivers and springs, only a few miles as the crow flies to the Gulf of Mexico, but is is really hard to tell where the land stops and the ocean starts. My house though is at 100 feet elevation, back when it was part of a ranch the owners would have had a well so cattle grazing this high up would have a water source. Swampland down lower is not good for cattle. And as a side note I have a place where you can see the top of a shorn off 4X4 post in the ground that was burned at some point long ago, barely an inch out of the sand. It is a clear cut too. There was a post like a rancher would use but it was sawn off at ground level like 30 or so years ago, about the time the house was built. I think they had a fence around the old well they used to water cattle, but when it became a housing HOA subdivision the fence was in the contractor's way and they cut it off at the ground. Cows can destroy a well if it is not fenced off. So, I have tried to get irrigation and landscaping people involved to help me find the well. No matter why it was abandoned at today's water bills/restrictions it would be worth repair. Hell even a NEW well would almost be worth it, but the next door neighbor has his irrigation on a well and his is 170 feet deep. Figure about a thousand per foot with everything included, pump, wiring, plumbing, that is why an existing well would be so great. But Covid means a lot of people who are independent businessmen are getting their first and mayby only vacations ever, they never qualified for unemployment till now, and that $600 per week from the feds means when you try to get hold of anyone that owns his own business you are just shit out of luck. They know as independent businesses they will never get another chance to take any time off without losing money or customers. Well drillers here you can call and call and always get I AM SORRY THAT NUMBER IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE. Rarely you will get voice mail but I have yet to get a call back. It is starting to look like we are on our own to fix things. But, the law does not allow us to "fix" things, we have to have permits and licensed contractors with bonded insurance or we can be fined $100 per day for doing it on our own.

A shop vac works great too but I don't have nearby power where I work and I always have a blower with me so I rely on this technique more often. I use a battery powered shop vac when I rebuild valves to make sure everything is nice and clean in the box and the valve itself.