Open sprayer to temporarily unclog diverter?

[yong321]

When I turn on the kitchen faucet, water flows out of the spout normally for about 1 second and immediately reduces to a tiny flow. To work around this problem, I open the side spray and close it. Then the flow from the spout becomes normal. This is likely a problem with the diverter. Searching for "diverter" shows many webpages on how to replace it. But I'm also interested in how to explain this. On a patent page
https://www.google.com/patents/US7077153
I see the internal structure of the diverter, specifically Figures 5 and 6
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/US7077153B2/US07077153-20060718-D00004.png
The text on the patent page (the paragraph beginning with "As best shown in FIG. 5") explains the mechanism very well. But I'm still not sure how to explain my case: a clogged diverter can be "unclogged" by opening and closing the sprayer. Any insight is appreciated.

 

[Mr_David]

The side spray is always charged with water when the faucet is opened but only flows when the spray is opened.
The flow is what moves the piston in diverter to stop the flow at spout.
That piston gets stuck. you said " I open the side spray and close it" the water flows from the spout. When the side spray slams shut it jars /bumps the piston and returns the fixture to normal flow. Do you have to do the side spray thing every time you turn faucet on?
when you turn faucet off after getting flow to spout and then open it again do you have to repeat the side spray thing?

Check your water pressure. That sometimes can cause funny unexplained problems.

 

[yong321]

Thanks David. Your explanation sounds reasonable (When the side spray slams shut it jars /bumps the piston and returns the fixture to normal flow.) Indeed, a slam force helps. If I very quickly open the spout, it seems to have this problem less likely. (My wife experiences this more often because she can't open the spout as quickly as me.)

It's also slightly less likely to have this problem the second time I open the spout, shortly after I open and close the side spray and get the normal spout flow and then close the spout. Water pressure seems to be OK although I don't have equipment to check it. I'll have the whole thing replaced shortly. I tried to remove the diverter alone per https://www.pfisterfaucets.com/support/faqs/diverter but I can't disengage it. Maybe ours is an old model, not of the quick-connect type.