Plumbing is grand when it works properly, isn’t it?
And yet, sometimes, it doesn’t.
When it comes to plumbing issues, low water pressure is both the least and the most frustrating to deal with.
It’s the least frustrating because it doesn’t generally cause any damage to your home, not like a main sewer line backup or other reasons you might need to call a 24-hour emergency plumbing contractor.
At the same time, though, it can make your experience with every one of your plumbing fixtures just a little bit more frustrating than it needs to be. Needing a low water pressure shower repair plumber will be especially frustrating.
We can help.
Here at Mount Airy Plumbing, our experienced and licensed Philadelphia plumbing contractors have experience with low water pressure repairs. We’ll get to the bottom of what it is that’s causing your low water pressure, and get the job done.
How Does Water Pressure Work?
If you get your water from a municipal source, your water goes on a long journey before it gets to your home. Here in Philly, our drinking water comes from the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. From there, it goes to a municipal treatment plant to be filtered and prepared.
Next, it’s moved to a pressurized tank that sits at a higher altitude, in order to let gravity do the work of moving the water to your house. If you’ve ever seen a water tower, that’s what it means. Because gravity create its own source of pressure, the water that flows to your house is already pressurized.
In other cases, booster stations will be set up along the way to help maintain water pressure. This is especially the case in big cities.
Water pressure in general should be ideally somewhere between 45 and 55 pounds per square inch, or psi.
What Causes Low Water Pressure?
There are a number of different factors which may be at play to cause low water pressure issues in your home. These include:
Faulty Plumbing Fixtures
If only one of your plumbing fixtures has low water pressure, it might be an issue with that fixture itself. This is common with shower heads and faucets, since they can become clogged overtime. When water has less space to move through, the pressure decreases.
Sometimes, all you need to do to fix this is to clean your plumbing fixture or clean the aerator, but in others you may have to replace the fixture all together.
Too Much Water Demand
This is generally only an issue in larger homes, or homes that have a lot of people living in them. If you have multiple Plumbing fixtures on at the same time, it can place too high of a demand on your home’s water supply. As a result, the pressure decreases.
In most cases, this can be solved just by coordinating with the other people in your home. if it’s too frustrating, however, we can help.
Clogged Pipes
While it’s much more common to deal with clogged drains, the pipes that supply your water can become clogged as well. This reduces the amount of water supply to your home, which can cause low water pressure. A common culprit for this is tree roots growing into the pipes supplying water to your home.
In some cases, this is the city’s responsibility to repair, and in other cases it’s up to you. If it’s the latter, we can do a clogged pipe repair service for you.
Closed Water Valves
This is by far the simplest cause for low water pressure. Your home has a main water shut off valve, and each of your individual Plumbing fixtures also has its own shut off valve. If these aren’t fully opens, it will restrict your water flow and cause low water pressure.
The good news is it’s really easy to fix this. Just find the water valve and make sure it’s fully open.
Faulty Pressure Regulator
Not all homes are equipped with a pressure regulator. However, if yours has one and it isn’t working properly, this can cause low water pressure. It can also cause high water pressure, which can cause stress on your pipes.
A pressure regulator is shaped like a bell, and you’ll find it near your home’s front hose connection. These are set it and forget it type devices, but if yours has become damaged or is worn out, it may need to be replaced. Like all mechanical devices, pressure regulators don’t last forever.
Can You Always Fix Low Water Pressure?
Not always. Sometimes low water pressure can be caused by issues with the municipal water supply, in which case you’ll have to wait for the government to take care of it. In others, Mother Nature might have a hand in it.
Whatever it is that’s causing your low water pressure issues, we’ll get to the bottom of it. And if it’s something we can fix, rest assured we’ll take care of it for you.