Low Water Pressure in Faucets

My house is only 2 1/2 years old and our master bathroom shower/tub faucet has lost water pressure. It has been this way for the past year and a half so my husband and I have been using the guest bathroom for everything now. Ever since we left for our honeymoon and were gone for a week, we came back to find that when we would turn on the shower, it makes a squealing noise and both the shower head and tub faucet hardly have any pressure. I don't have a problem with any other faucets in the house. What do you suggest i do?

Holly,
I suggest you read the above column once more and then check the actual faucet valve cartridges for blockages. It only takes a small piece of sediment or sand to block water flow.

We live in a single wide in Washington state and several weeks ago my pressure on the cold water side only decreased at least 50% if not more. It first occured with the washer and now it is affecting all cold water faucets in the home. We have cleaned out the screens and areators to all faucets. The pressure at the water hose outside seems to be o.k. Do you have any suggestions???

Sharon,
The issue is sediment in the faucet cartridges.

I've read your solution to Patty's low pressure problem but my problem is low pressure on hot supply side in kitchen faucet. I've tried installing a new faucet (twice now) to no avail. Finding out that the bathroom hot side at basin is running slower than cold side but running adequately to live with. Tried blowin through the pipe but unsuccessfully...just fustrated now. p.s. tub is fine.

Windell,
Based upon your facts, the clog is in the faucet cartridge.

I have a similar problem. I have two hot water tanks connected together.I have a well. Heavy Sediment runs intermittently out of one upstairs shower and sink faucet when on hot water. The water pressure for that shower dropped very low. I removed the shower head and observed heavy sediment when I turned on the hot water. The pressure for the sink faucet is fine, but lots of sediment when I turn on the hot water. All other hot and cold water faucets and lines are fine throughout this large house. Is there sediment in a line?

Richard,
I think the answer is yes. You should consider installing a filtering system as the water line enters the house.

Thank you, but what is my current problem...sediment in a line? if so, how do I clear it? Or could it be a clogged faucet valve? Thank you.

Richard,
Read this column again. Flush the lines. Check the cartridges, etc.

I have a question about cold water pressure through out my house. we live in a modular home put together in 2003. We only have lived here a couple of months. Since we have been here our pipes have frozen twice. which we have put the heat tape and new insulation on them(the house is not on concret). The biggest problem is the water pressure cold water in the whole house is almost nothing. My husband says there is hot wtaer because of the heater. 2 bathrooms kitchen and front loading washer which almost doesnt make it thru 1 load . HELP PLEASE.

Michelle,
I need you to read ALL of the columns in my Plumbing Design category. Once you do, you will be able to look at your system to see where the installers goofed up.

just bought a 30 y.o house and "my" bathroom is really just a closet with plumbing-- (where I can shave etc and not upset the Mrs.)

As stated previously: very weak pressure in the faucet...
I was going to buy a new faucet and have a plumber replace the lines and put in new shut-offs etc..but then I read your article and lo and behold my aerator has a small fleck of plaster in it!!! Problem solved!! Very grateful and a bit pissed that faucets can be faltered by such a minuscule particle.

Thank you.

Water pressure to all outlets is normal except hot line of kitchen faucet. Cold line is normal in kitchen. I installed a new faucet deck set. No change, Hot water pressure problem still exists. Help!

Thank you so much - this worked like a charm and took less than 5 minutes! The water pressure in my bathroom sink has been driving me nuts for weeks. I hated to call a plumber just for that [& pay him oodles of money]. Now I don't have to! Thank you again. :-)

I have no water pressure from my faucet on either hot or cold, but, my hose on my sink has full pressure. I have already verified the tip and is perfectly clean and still no water pressure from the faucet.

Ray,
Did you bother to check the flow of the hot water line whet you had it all apart? There could be a blockage in the valve or you have a problem in the cartridge.

i JUST RECENLY installed a walk in hydro therapy bathtub, i dont have enough water pressure to the hot side it takes forever to fill it up , i installed a new 50gallon waterheater and ran 3//4 inch waterpipes into the w/heater and out to the tub faucet due to old galvy water lines i used the pex hoses and installed a new ballvalve main shutoff3/4inch incoming into house all these upgrades didnt increase the waterpressure coming out off the hydrospout hotsidetub what can i do to increase tub pressure ...........thanyou , sincerly randy hancock

Shirley,
Did you replace the cartridges?

Randy,
Are you sure that you have awesome volume and pressure *before* the valve? What about sediment in the hot side of the faucet?

The water pressure throughout our home is generally low compared to homes we have owned previously. The faucet in the kitchen has an equal, low water pressure for hot and cold. However, when you turn them both on full power the pressure does increase slightly but would still be considered low by most standards. Our master bathroom has a separate shower and tub. The shower's water pressure is sufficient, along with both sinks, but the bath tub is extremely low on pressure for hot water but normal for cold. The guest bath has a bath and shower combo and a single sink, the hot water pressure is extremely low and the cold water pressure is more than adequate (the hot water pressure for the bath tub is considerably lower than the already low pressure for the sink faucet). Our water heater is 60 gallons but I believe it is about 10 years old which is the age of the home. The piping has been replaced with copper throughout the home. My thoughts, before reading through this article, were to replace the old water heater with a new or tank-less unit. What are your thoughts?

Derek,
I think you should go read all of my columns about Tankless Water Heaters. There is more than one.

I just recently had a water heater replaced. And while waiting for the installation, the hot water valve was shut off.. now my water pressure is very low, at first it was just the hot, but now the cold is also.. will this work itself out?

Sarena,
I don't mean to be rude, but did you read the above column and all of the comments?

I drained my gas water heater because everytime hot water was coming out of the heater it sounded like rocks flying around inside, now after I refilled it, it still sounds like rocks flying around inside....only more rocks. Also, I used to have really bad water pressure in my kitchen, now suddenly after draining the water heater I have NO WATER coming from the kitchin sink, maybe a trickle at best. It would take me 2 minutes to fill a coffee cup. I now also have a very slow leak in the shut off valve above the water heater along with some blueish white crusty substance on the seams on the pipes surrounding the leaky valve, also the shut off valve for the dishwasher under the sink is leaking now....Could all if this have started because I was trying to do the correct thing in draining my hot water heater???

Stan,
You bet it is related..... You dislodged a bunch of sediment from the heater and now it is in the faucet cartridges and aerators. Read all of my columns on this.

I want to check my valve cartridge but cannot find any information on how to do that for my faucet (no instruction book, no info. on the website). Is there a pretty standard way to check. My pressure problem is not with the aerator, though I checked it and it did seem to have some sediment in it. The pressure is still low --to zip!

Brittany,
You just have to take apart the faucet. Take a photo of the faucet and go to a real plumbing supply house. Ask the most seasoned employees there if they are familiar with the fixture, if they have the part and how to get access to the inside.

I have the standard faucet with a side sprayer. I started with low water pressure for the cold. Then low pressure with hot and cold. Then down to dripping only.
The sprayer works just fine with full water pressure.
I've removed the tip to check for any blockage, but to no avail.
Do I need to just buy a new faucet?
The faucet is about 4 years old.

Thanks so much!

Daphne,
No. You need to follow all of the advice in this column.

My problem is this: On the hot water side in my bathroom, when first turning on the water, the pressure is good and strong. About 15 to 30 seconds in it drops to way less than 50%. If I turn the knob almost off it gets a little stroner but not much. No other faucets in the house are affected.

Help please!

Debbie,
There is something in the cartridge......

My husband just recently had the shower and the faucets replace in the downstairs bathtub by a plumber. Since then, we have very low cold water pressure and the toilet when flushed does not fill up with water.
Any suggestions. Thanks

I have some of the same water pressure issues. My water pressure works fine everywhere in my home expect for the kitchen. The strange things is that the water pressure is fine on the cold water side, but very low when using hot water. I've tried a few different facuets, but I'm still having a problem.

Carol,
This column tells you exactly what happened. You have sediment inside the toilet fill valve.

Royce,
This tells you that the blockage is in the cartridge.

I recently replace my 20 plus year old kitchen faucet and there is a huge drop in water volume to the extent that the low water volume is causing problems with my drain line stopping up when I use the garbage disposal. Is there anything I can do short of filling the sink up with water before using the garbage disposal to wash the waste down the drain line.

Dear Tim,
Our outdoor water spigot has very low water pressure. Our indoor faucets all have normal pressure. We first noticed the lower pressure a couple weeks ago when we were filling up a water can. When we turned it to fully open, it was maybe 1/2 the pressure. Also, the faucet leaks when it's turned on. When you turn it off it will continue to leak for a few minutes before stopping. The leaking might be a separate issue?

We hooked our hose back up to the spigot today for the first time since last Fall but all we get out of the hose is a sprinkling of water.

We used the spigot back around February on a warmer day (in the 40s) in order to fill up our water jugs and it worked just fine...it's our only water access to non-water softener water that we can use for our house plants. After doing some internet searching tonight I'm concerned that might be the cause of this problem (having used the spigot in the winter time although it was a warmer day).

Our house is 7 yrs old and on a slab so I have no way of getting under the house to look at pipes. Our water bills haven't reflected an increase - we haven't received this month's bill yet, but we've had warmer weather for a few weeks now so I wouldn't think a pipe would have recently busted in warmer weather?

Do you have any idea what our problem may be? Any suggestions on how we can diagnose the problem and fix it ourselves? We would like to avoid the high expense of a plumber if possible.

Thanks for your time.
Kind Regards,
Sheri

ATB, your advice is very helpful! Do you have a link/picture/diagram to what a faucet cartridge looks like? I'm just having problems with a upstairs faucet and shower. Low water pressure. I've had low pressure in a kitchen sink before and just cleaning the aerator or buy new one ($6) fixed the problem. Thanks.

I have a bosch aquastar tankless water heater. It was installed wrong with galvanized pipe and used brass and copper fittings. Corrosion has taken over. I replaced the galvanized pipe with copper it worked better. I know the heat exchange has to be clogged and corroded internally.
Last night my kitchen faucet water pressure dropped so low the water heater won't kick on when this fixture is running. Do you think its mainly the heat exchange that needs to be flushed out or something in the faucet?

Update: we found out the cause of the low water pressure to our outdoor spigot. Our pipe had sustained freeze damage. We found this out when the pipe burst in the wall last week (4/21), putting a hole in the drywall and soaking/flooding our entire dining room and a portion of the family room. They had to cut out additional areas in the drywall to pull out insulation and dry the inside of the walls. So if anyone reads my comment from 4/16 and are experiencing a similar situation, beware! What a frustration, but thank goodness for homeowner's insurance!

Tim,
You rock! We had horrible pressure from one faucet, and I fixed it! Easily!
Thank you so much! I now have a lil' plumbing know-how to go with my ass crack! Thanks!!! Clean hands for everyone!

I have a similar water pressure problem except it is at two out side faucets. The home is nearly a year old and the water pressure has always been low. Any suggestions.

Thanks

I suddenly have very low cold water pressure in my kitchen and at the outside water / hose line. Kitchen hot water is great, both bathrooms have useable but lower than normal pressure in hot and cold lines. I do have very hard well water and suspect it is a scale or sediment problem. But, should that affect the outside line also?
Thank you.

I have a water pressure problem at my kitchen sink. The problem is just on the hot water side. I replaced the cartridge and there has been no improvement in my water pressure. What else can I do?

I am the Laboratory Supervisor of a medium size water utility using chloramines as our disinfectant. Recently, we have received several calls from our customers concerning sediment buildup in their recirculating hot water heaters. The sediment can block valves in their systems causing expensive repair bills. Or it can get caught in faucet aerators or showerheads. The sediment resembles salt in its appearance and when analyzed (at least for two homeowners) we found that it was mostly zinc.

We wonder if dezincification could be occurring and if so, what would you recommend that these homeowners do to reduce its occurrence?

I have a question that maybe, I hope someone can help me with. I installed a new 50 gal Hot water tank and now I have no pressure in the hot water lines throughout my house, did I do something wrong

Tim,
I have read through your column and the comments, but none of them seem to resolve the low water pressure problem that I am experiencing. I have a kitchen sink, washer and outide faucet that all have low cold water pressure. I have checked the cartridge as well as the aerator and the mesh filter on the washing machine. I believe that all three are on the same line because all the other faucets in and outside the house have ample pressure. Any suggestions?

Tim,

Followed your advice and found tons of sediment in the aerator. Totally gross, but it fixed the problem. Thanks for the tips!

Low water pressure when more than one faucet is on.

I have a 4 month old home i have never had "good" water pressure i cannot run two faucets at the same time. what do you suggest?

I have a similar problem to Richard. No well, but very hard water. My block appears to be in the feed for the tub/shower. I've removed the spigot and checked the diverter. The water pressure was bad with it off. I've removed the stems and they are all clean. But still no pressure. I'm sure there is blockage somewhere in the feed to the tub, but I can't get it to flush out. I'll be looking into filters after I clean this, but any suggestion as to how to get it flushed out?

I apologize if this ends up here twice. I'm having this problem as well, but in my tub. I've tried flushing by starting and stopping the water flow (at the main - no shutoff's by the tub anyway). Flow is fine in the sink. I've pulled the stems, which were replaced only a year or so ago and everything looks good. Still no flow. I'll add a house filter later as our water is way too hard, but how can I flush this?

Hi Builder:
my kitchen faucet have a spray hose with it. for many long time we did not used spray hose. yesterday we used hose spray and from that time onwards water flow in faucet is almost zero. water presure in spray hose is full. pl. advice

Thanks & regards
Baljeet

tim please help!! my outside water faucets are running very sloe the front yard faucet is not to slow. but the back yard faucet is slow hardly any pressure are water at all. last year both were great. please help are tell me what to do!!.

In my bath tub/shower i have three faucet handles; a hot, cold, and a the middle one is the flow diverter that redirects the water from the spicket to the shower head. the water pressure is good in the entire house except for the shower head. It comes out fast through the tub spicket but when i turn the diverter and redirect flow to the shower head the water pressure coming out of the shower head is low....? i've tried different shower heads and the results remain unchanged.

a few days ago i noticed a 50% drop in water pressure in my house. all faucets seem to be affected. any suggestions as to why?

I have side by side sinks, both with the same style Kohler fixtures. One has excellent pressure, the other poor. I have called Kohler and they have sent new valves and aerator. Have replaced all items, but the low pressure problem persists. I've had a plumber inspect the pipes in the wall and concluded that they are unobstructed. Is there anywhere else that the system could be clogged? Any other recommendations

my lav. and kitch faucets have low pressure. My bath and shower are fine. have removed the airators to no avail. any ideas

We have an aerator on kitchen sink that keeps clogging in fairly rapid succession. Each time the clog appears to be a large number of irregular small black pebbles.
The aerator usually clogs again within about 2 days after clearing out the aerator. I have tried running the water at this faucet for several minutes, without the aerator on (trying to flush out the sediments). Still the aerator seems to re-clog. I have not yet tried running the hose as suggested by the column. At this point it seems like this has happened suddenly and to the best of our knowledge is not connected with other plumbing repairs or water main repairs. I have separately replaced the cartridge. Any other suggestions?

I'm not sure if my problem is low pressure or low flow. My pressure is not that great to begin with but it takes two hours to wash a load of clothes when i open the lid the water is just trickling in. I checked the psi on my pressure tank and it is at 50. I'm wondering if perhaps the pressure switch could be messed up or the submersible well pump?

i have a strange situation. In the bathroom on the hot water side the water just barely streams. But if I turn the hot water on in the tub, the bathroom sinks hot water runs exactly the way it should. Do you have any suggestions?

Hi, I did read all the wonderful answers that you have provided on low water pressure. Our problem is that it is low hot water pressure throughout the house and even in the washing machine which sits just feet away from the water heater.
My husband thinks there must be a problem somewhere else before the cartridges at the faucets. Any suggestions?

I folloewed your recommendations and within 5 minutes I had my guest bathroom faucets flowing freely after 3 months of trying to fugure out the problem.

Thanks for your assistance. I am bookmarking your page!!!

Great advice! Thanks for your valuable information. Everything back to normal.

hi i have a pressure problem,every faucet in house works fine,the one outside hose has less pressure,just started a week ago? what can i do to fix it.

I have a similar problem. We recently installed a new faucet in our kitchen.
BEFORE we installed it, the hot water pressure was fine.
Now, its about 75% of what it was.
The cold water pressure is fine.
The hot water pressure in the bathrooms is fine.
We have cleaned the screen in the faucet more than once.
Is there something in the hot water handle that can be regulated for flow?

My water pressure is low in the kitchen faucet. It seems like it
has something to do with the spray wash line. I have to bend the line and
can't use it to rinse my dishe or anything elese.

Hi, all the faucets in my condo work fine except the tub faucet.

I have low water pressure when I use the tub spout. THe shower seems fine once the water pressure builds up but to fill the tub with water takes forever and no oe little water pressure. Can someone help.DO I need t oreplace the tub spout??

Thanks for help

I have well water. we sprung 2 leaks one pipe coming into the house (copper) the other inside the house both replaced. Plus corrected the piping on the well pump itsself. I have 2 bathrooms at either end of house kitchen in the middle with laundry room and one hot water heater.
I have water flow to washer, both toilets,sink in one bathroom and both outside fixtures.I havea slight drip of both hot water and cold water to kitchen and back bathroom sink and shower when turned on.we have stumped 2 plumbers?? what is wrong?? thank you.

Recently, one of our master bedroom bathroom sink faucet has a drastic drop in water pressure. The other sink, shower and tub are fine. What could be the cause of this?

Thanks.

Thanks!

I followed your advice, and my faucet is working fine now!

:-)

Tim

Hi my problem is in the restroom we have two sinks a his and hers one sink works fine hot and cold and good pressure but the other has no hot water coming out and the cold water pressure is very low. What can you tell me my problem is.

I have 2 bathrooms(guest & master) back to back. After the kids take a shower in the guest bathroom, the master bathroom shower faucet starts leaking, so i open up the faucets & it finally stops after a while . Now this does not happen when I take a shower in the master bathroom, the guest bathroom shower faucet does not leak. I called a plumber on the phone & he told me it sounded like back pressure since the bathrooms are back to back. What do you suggest ?

The owner's apartment handyman seemingly fixed my old kithen faucets, but then had an expensive "Chicago" faucet anyway.
Now, the water flow (through an aeorator) in just the cold water side is less than half that of the hot water side, but the handyman says that's "Normal."
He also says complain to the owner about it, if I must, but I'd like to know something of what I speak about, if so, so that I don't come off as an ungrateful, (long time rent-controlled) apartment tenant.
Thank you for your technical, etc. advice.

I had a new faucet installed in my kitchen. Not long after that when I would use my sprayer it would cause the faucet to lose pressure. It might start out with good pressure and in a second or two would lose at least half or more of the pressure. Everything has been taken apart and cleaned. Any ideas?

Thanks!

i have a coldwater tank which feeds a solar hotwater tank. the outputs are independant. i hd to close off the coldwater inlet to do some repairs and forgot to turn it on again. today the water in the cold water line ran out and although it was turned back on i am not getting any presure in my faucets. i imagne it is due to an air pocket, but how do i bleed it?

I just moved back into my house after being away for a year. The water pressure throughout the house is about 50%. It has been this way for a week now and am not sure how to resolve this.
The house was winterized before I left, I have already made sure that I do not have a leak and have had the water company verify the pressure coming into the home is equal to the houses around it. Any ideas on what to do? Is it possibly the water heater? Could draining and refilling this be a solution?

I have just installed a new bathroom sink faucet. I turned off the water supply using the valves under the sink. However, when I turned the water back on the water pressure is really low and I can't think why?

Thanks

Thanks for this site Tim. I just fixed my kitchen faucet which took me about 10 minutes, when my husband said "just call a plumber & get a new faucet"!

my house has low water pressure in all of the faucets, etc. Even the outside water has very low pressure,
I removed the aerator screens and still have low pressure. What can I do.

Tim, I read your reponse to Patty and I'm still having an issue with the water pressure in kitchen faucet. I even changed out the entire faucet and I still have the same problem. This seems to be so weird because the water flow well everywhere else and even when I disconnect the hoses from the faucet. Please help!!!!

have sufficient water pressure on the cold side hardly any on the hot.had the same problem with tankless changed to a traditional water heater and is worse. Any sugestions. Thanks

I have a problem with my cold water faucet in the shower. When I try to adjust it, nothing happens to the temperature until you get past a certain point, and then --bam-- you hear a kind of thunk, followed by a drastic change in temperature. The same thing happens when you try to go in reverse... and as a result, it often takes ten minutes or more to get the water to a temperature you can actually shower in. Any ideas?

In the past month our kitchen faucet's hot water pressure has decreased dramatically. However, it runs fine at full pressure for the first few seconds and then drops off. All other hot water faucets in the house run at full pressure. how do we fix this?
thanks

I've been reading the comments on the clogged water flow and I have the problem with the hot water flow in my tub after the plumber fixed a cold water drip. The water flow on the cold side is fine but the hot is only a stream flow. THE PROBLEM is that this pluming is over 30 years old and I'm afraid to disturb the pipes to take it apart to clean. Is there away to clear a clog if that's the problem while all still installed?
Thank you, Ann Shirley

I just want to thank you. Because of this site I was able to fix my water faucet. I just bought my first home and don't know a lot. My husband is always working and doesn't have much time to figure things out.
Our kitchen faucet pressure and water volume had decreased dramatically after moving into our home. I had not realized, until I read this article, that when we turned off and on the main water, we probably dislodge sediment. In fact, when I took off the aerator I noticed debris clogging it. It was a super easy fix. Thank You.

Thank you. I just replaced my bathroom sink and faucet and all was great for about a day and suddenly low water pressure. I came across your article and within seconds I had water pressure back again. Thank you.

I live in an older home and don't have faucet carts. The cold water in the tub is a trickle, but hot is fine. The pressure in the sink and toilet are also fine. We haven't had any water main breaks, nor any work on the plumbing (except to change the washers on the valve stems several months ago). Any suggestions? Thanx

I have been having water pressure problems for the past several months. Normally, the water pressure is pretty good, but when the washer is filling or the toilet is flushed, it decreases the pressure in the faucets a lot. I cleaned the aerators, but that didn't help.

Sounds like the only thing you know what to check is the faucet cartridges. I also have a cold water only flow problem. The cartridges are all fine on every faucet, and the hot water has normal pressure. What do you recommend Mr. Faucet Cartridge???

i lost water pressure in my shower and kitchen sink after changing a piece on my hot water heater what went wrong

Recently had water turned off/on, and some pipes moved for a kitchen remodel (replaced with plastic tubing not copper). I cleaned out all faucets/shower heads of the sediment. However Water pressure is still low in shower, so recleaned both faucet and valve. Still no better. Replaced valve. No better. Is it possible that sediment is stuck in the piping somewhere that leads to the shower head? How can I flush that out?

I have the same problem, but for a different reason. We had a plumber come out and install new faucets in our tub. Now the water pressure in the shower and bathtub is really low. It takes a good half hour to fill the tub. I refuse to call the same person out to fix it as he has done work for us in the past only to lead to more problems..but there is no other plumber in the area. Is there something we can do to resolve this problem?