Odd Water Pressure Issues

Kato

I have one faucet in the house that has been giving us more and more troubles lately. Bathroom sink. We are getting poor water pressure from it. For a while, we would be just fine. 100% pressure. The one day it would be 50% pressure...later on back up to 100%. Then the next day, 25% pressure...so on and so on.

It would go back and forth like this a lot...but here lately, we are getting about 10% water pressure...it is very slow. And this is the only faucet in the house that does this. Nothing else in the house is using/running water either. That can be the only place it is in use...but it's just so slow. I haven't noticed any huge increase in our water bill lately either. I was thinking that maybe there is a leak or something somewhere, but the water bill is still the same.

I've asked around to a few people and get some confused looks. Normally, you would lose water pressure throughout the whole house. Not just the one location. Anyone out here have any ideas?

Sir Carcass

Try cleaning the filter in the spout. That worked wonders for our kitchen sink once.

mts

maybe the pipes/hoses that bring water to the faucet are kinked/bent/blocked

AtomBomb

The faucet is clogged.

Seattle Thread

Remove the aerator (the little cylindrical spout that dangles off of the end of the faucet), run both hot and cold for a few minutes, reassemble. If you have steel pipes, prepare to be horrified as rusty water may flow out.

Wheezer

It might also be a bad volume mixer cartridge inside the faucet. Try the aerator removal Makershot suggested first. Also check the hoses running to the faucet are not bent like mts suggested (but this is unlikely to have happened suddenly.) Then if that doesn't help, the cartridge is to blame.

I am not a plumber, but the DIY self route is something like this:
You should turn the water off to your toilet (or faucet, you might have easy access to a valve near the water hoses to the faucet,) pry off the little hot/cold indicator under the faucet handle and loosen the set screw to remove the handle. This will reveal the catridge inside. It should come out by just pulling it by hand or with pliers - and it might be in two parts. You can take it out and find a replacement for it - it's not really user serviceable. The installation is the same process, but backwards.

onceling

This thread inspired me to go check out my own single-faucet weird pressure issue. These guys are right, my aerator was full of crap. I can't believe I was considering calling a plumber and replacing the whole faucet.

Gopherboy128

It also could be (depending on age of your plumbing) any corrosion in your lines between your main water supply line coming into your house/appartment, and the supply valve coming out of the wall. Recently helped a friend remodel, plumbed in a new sink and faucet, and when the water got turned back on, it broke loose a bunch of crap that clogged the valve, so we had to remove it and then turn the water on and it blew all kinds of crap into a 5gal bucket we placed under the pipe, then threaded the valve back on, reconnected the supply lines and it fixed everything.

Realistically, I think your aerator is full.

Seattle Thread

Wheezer wrote: »

Then if that doesn't help, the cartridge is to blame.

This is only if he's got a single-lever faucet, like a Moen. Even then, I'd save the cartridge for last--it's one of those things that can go from easy breezy to a gigantic pain in the ass in a matter of seconds.

But I'll go over it bit-by-bit, in case it is a Moen or for reference:

You should turn the water off to your toilet (or faucet, you might have easy access to a valve near the water hoses to the faucet)

Under the sink along the back wall are two knobs, professionally known as "stops." Stops are nice because you can disable the water to a specific fixture without having to bring the whole house down. The left one is for Hot, the right one for Cold.

Pry off the little hot/cold indicator under the faucet handle and loosen the set screw to remove the handle.

Again, this is only on Moen faucets. But it's accurate--unfortunately, though, the set screw requires an allen key. DO NOT REMOVE THE ENTIRE SCREW! They're a bitch and a half to thread back in there. A simple turn or two to loosen it will suffice.

This will reveal the catridge inside. It should come out by just pulling it by hand or with pliers - and it might be in two parts. You can take it out and find a replacement for it - it's not really user serviceable. The installation is the same process, but backwards.

This is where it gets tricky... there's a clip that holds the cartridge in place. Otherwise, you could remove the entire cartridge just by pulling up on the handle. IF you are going this route, well, make sure the stopper is in the sink. You may be able to take a toothpick or an unbent paper clip and catch the tiny hole on the clip in order to pull it out.

If you do manage to get the clip out, there is a little trick that might work as well. Make sure to have a few towels cushioned around the faucet, hold your hand over the now-cartridgless hole in order to stop any water flow, and open the stops. SLOWLY. The idea is to flush out anything blocking the line. It's not a 100% effective method, but if you're that far then it's worth a shot.

Failing that, it's off to a pluming supply shop for a Moen core. They're almost universal, but take your current one with you. And after reassembling everything, if you find your hot and cold sides have suddenly switched, just remove the handle again and give the stem a 180-degree turn.

If you've got a two-handle faucet (i.e., separate knobs for hot and cold), then you can do something similar. BUT, it involves a set of tools and valve cores (which are not universal) and is generally more of a hassle than the average homeowner wants to deal with.