Low Water Pressure Problem

We take water for granted.  We turn on the faucet, the water comes out, we shut it off and we are off to something else.  We rarely think about the water until there is a problem.  Watching your water is important because your appliances rely on water pressure to work properly.  Such as your ice maker.  Most ice makers require a certain amount of pressure to work correctly otherwise you could damage your ice maker and pay someone big bucks to fix it.  Same goes with your RO system, boiler and other appliances.  We listed five steps below on how to solve your low water pressure issues.

1. Check your Faucet – You might notice that the water in your faucet is coming out very slowly.  Don’t assume you have a huge water problem.  Check another faucet to see how the water is coming out.  If water is flowing at a normal rate, then it just means your original faucet has the problem.  In this case take your screen off as something might have jammed in your screen preventing a good flow of water.  Another thing to check is the valves.  Maybe under the sink a valve was bumped closed or partially closed.
2. Check Your Valves – If you find the problem is throughout the house, check valves.  You should have a couple main values throughout the house.  Such as by your main, by your water softener or water heater.  Who knows, this could have been shut off by another member in the house for some reason or it just went bad.  Remember to always exercise your valves so they don’t stick.  Every six months you want to open and shut your valves to make sure they don’t have mineral build up and prevent flow.
3. Pressure Regulator – A pressure regulator regulates the pressure in your home.  They do go bad and may need to be replaced, so don’t forget about this.
4. Check for leaks – A leak can happen in the home causing a loss of pressure.  Do a walk around and make sure you don’t see leaks in the pipes.  Also check on the floor as leaks behind walls may not show water damage right away, but you should see water on the floor.
5. Water Softener – If all else fails, check your water softener.  Most of the time this is what the problem might be.  Your water softener should have a bypass valve where you can bypass the water softener.  Once you bypass the water softener, see how your pressure in the house is.  Chances are you will see the pressure rise back up to normal.  If this is the case you have a problem with your softener.  You could have clogged jets or a filter.  Also your media or resin could be bad in your softener which means you have to replace your water softener resin.  Media is good for 15 to 20 years depending upon the type.

These are five actions you can take before you call a plumber.  These could save you a lot of money and headaches.  Remember always check the easy items first then work your way up.