Low water pressure

[coachgrd]

This morning my wife and I had low water pressure for our showers. (Sadly, they were separate showers ) My 8 year old son actually noticed the same thing yesterday during his. We are on a well. The pressure in the rest of the house seems fine, I think. I was going to pick up some of CRL on the way home and let the shower head soak for a few hours tonite and see if it's just perhaps some deposits clogging up the head. If this doesn't work, any thoughts on where I should go from there?

 

[Dutch445]

Is this the same shower for your son and you?

If it's just 1 fixture, you may want to also look
at taking the valve apart, and seeing if a small piece
of material is restricting flow into or thru the valve.

If you think it just happened, and wasn't a build up
over time, i doubt it's from hard water deposits
on the shower head, but could be. It might be
worth lookin at the shower head inlet for an
obstruction also. (easier to pull apart
than the valve)

I've seen small pieces of shale, gravel, etc get caught
in valves before.

 

[SnowRidge]

You should have a gauge at your pressure tank, so you should know if the house pressure is normal or not. That's the first thing to check. If you have a filter, that would be next. FWIW, we notice low pressure in the shower before we notice it anywhere else. That means it's time to change our sediment filter.

 

[Richard]

FWIW, we notice low pressure in the shower before we notice it anywhere else. That means it's time to change our sediment filter.

Exactamundo!

 

[coachgrd]

You should have a gauge at your pressure tank, so you should know if the house pressure is normal or not. That's the first thing to check. If you have a filter, that would be next. FWIW, we notice low pressure in the shower before we notice it anywhere else. That means it's time to change our sediment filter.

I'm ashamed to admit this but where would I find my sediment filter?

 

[SnowRidge]

I'm ashamed to admit this but where would I find my sediment filter?

You may not have one, but if you do, it most likely would be in the line between the pressure tank and the rest of the house. Some people install them so that only inside lines are filtered, while outside faucets are left unfiltered. It is also possible to install them so that only part of the house is filtered. To me, that doesn't make much sense, but that doesn't mean someone hasn't done it.

Again, you may not even have a sediment filter. If you don't have one, it is a distinct possibility that trash is getting into your faucets, and that may have clogged the shower faucet, as Dutch445 indicated. It could even be the spray head that is loaded with the stuff. However, if that were the case, I think it would be a volume issue, rather than a pressure issue.

 

[Dutch445]

My system has no sediment filter,
but sounds like a good idea.

I often have to unhook my hoses going
to the laundry to clean out those screens
to regain flow there... mostly that's small
stuff, but an occasional small stone finds
its way there.

 

[SnowRidge]

This is the fourth property that I have owned with a well for a domestic water supply. The other three did not have any filtering, although one place could really have used one.

We installed the filter here after noticing fine black sand like particles in the water. They just showed up one day. We had something similar when we first bought the place, but they cleared up soon after we moved in.

The filter used to last three months, about what the manufacturer said it would, but the drought has changed things. We are now getting a lot of sediment. A couple of times, I had to change the filter at only two weeks. Things have been better lately, and we are now getting about six weeks between changes.

I think what has surprised me the most is the variability of it all.

 

[kenmac]

Check the shower head screens or the water saver screen . this is usually what we find stopped up

 

[coachgrd]

Check the shower head screens or the water saver screen . this is usually what we find stopped up

In talking to my brother this a.m., this is what he said too. He also said that I can clean the head by soaking it with some white vinegar. I'll give that a try, vinegar's pretty cheap.

 

[EddieWalker]

If you have good preasure throughout the house, and it's just the shower, then it's the shower head that's pluged up. Do you have metal pipes anywhere? This is very common in homes with galvanized metal pipes as there is a build up that forms inside the pipe, and small pieces will break off from time to time. Those small pieces are about he size of a grain or rice, give or take a little.

Unscrew your shower head and look inside of it. There is probably a plastic devide that blocks teh water from going through into the shower head. It will be flat with a small hole in the middle for the water to get through. It's a water saver device, but mostly it just catches the bigger pieces of debri. Just wash it out and you will be fine.

To cut down on having to do this again, you can drill out that small hole just a little bigger. Then the pieces that were getting cought will pass through and you will never know they are in your lines.

Over time, this will happen to your faucets too as they build up on the screeen at the end of the faucet. Unscrew them and see what's there.

If you don't have any galvanized piple anywhere in your line, then it's coming from your well and you need to install a filter.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Mickey_Fx]

I'm in a sim situation as Dutch. One addition place to check is, if you have single handle faucets, the water pasages into that ball valve are pretty small and I'd think that would be the first place to get plugged if you have some solids getting into the lines. I have problems like Eddie mentioned and when I have these kinds of flow problems, I disassembly the ball valve and 9 times out of 10 will find the problem there.

 

[Dutch445]

I have a tempermental shower valve,, single handle
ball type, that has this tendency to leak for a little
while every once in a while, then it goes away.
i think i get some crud in there also, in the little
o-ring washers.. but until it gets real bad, it's no big
deal.
once i start hearing the pump run in the middle of the
nite for no reason, then i start hunting for leaks!
(and i hear everything!)