Common Causes of Low Water Pressure at Home
Low water pressure in the home does more than impact the quality of your showers. Without optimal water pressure, your washing machine takes longer to fill, your dishwasher performs inadequately, your water heater may have trouble working efficiently, and faucets can yield weak streams of water even on full power.
Despite being annoying and inefficient, low water often goes undetected by homeowners, preventing them from addressing the root cause. Continuing to live with low water pressure can lead to expensive plumbing problems down the line.
At Advantage Plumbing & Sewer Co., we specialize in identifying and rectifying water pressure issues. Many problems could be affecting water pressure in your home. For that reason, we’ve created a list of common reasons you may experience water pressure issues in the house so you can attempt to diagnose the problem and work toward a solution.
Have you already identified a low water pressure problem? Call us today for quick and efficient backflow testing and installation in Elgin, IL.
1. Issues With Your Water Provider
Before unearthing the problem, ask around your neighborhood. Should your neighbors experience similar issues, low water pressure in the home likely stems from external sources.
Reach out to your water supply company and ask if they are handling the issues. If they are in the process of addressing the case, all you can do is stand by.
Should they ignore the problem and refuse to combat it, it might be time to petition with your neighbors. Petitioning is not easy, but in some stickier situations, you’ll need to take the matter into your own hands.
2. New City Regulations
Sometimes cities change one or more of their water regulations, leading your water company to comply and make necessary changes. In this case, you can buy a water pressure booster. Call Advantage Plumbing & Sewer Co. to get an experienced plumber to correctly install it for you.
Installing a water pressure booster system properly depends on variables like the year, build, and age of your pipes. Often, you will need an inspector to come to assess the work post-completion. With our professional plumber services, we make the entire installation easy and stress-free.
3. Partially Closed Shutoff Valve
As a homeowner, you must know how to turn off your water if a serious issue arises. These valves are sometimes located outside. However, you can usually find them where the water supply pipe meets with the residence.
The handles on shutoff valves look like those found on an ordinary hose, and you’ll need to turn it as far counterclockwise as possible to open it entirely. If you have a lever-looking handle, make sure it rests even with the pipe. If the handle or lever is not in this position, your valve is not entirely open, leading to low water pressure in the home.
4. Partially Closed Water Meter Valve
Water meter valves are the second valves controlling water intake to your home. Because the water company owns it, most homeowners and residents don’t directly interact with this part. Often, they are tricky to reach–more so when they’re found underground.
If you notice lower water pressure in conjunction with work on your home recently completed, it may be time to contact the water company. Your water meter valve may not have been opened fully again after work was completed. You’ll need someone to find the valve and reset it to a functioning state.
5. Failing or Malfunctioning Pressure Regulator
Not every home’s plumbing will include a pressure regulator, so skip this tip if yours does not.
To test if your pressure regulator is in working order, you can attach a gauge to an outdoor hose. Turning on your water will quickly read your water pressure, alerting you to any potential problems.
Regulators augment the pressure of the water arriving from the city line to make it safe and suitable for your steel pipes. Should the pressure be lower than the read on your regulator, the regulator may be causing the issue. When not reading or reading improperly, the machine does not know the difference–in reality, it’s allowing a low PSI.
Call Advantage Plumbing & Sewer Co. today if you need help rectifying pressure regulator problems. Tinkering with the regulator yourself may lead to more significant problems.
6. Clogged Pipes
Clogs forming deep within your pipes can significantly reduce water pressure. Clogs can appear in many areas within your home’s foundation, making it critical that you contact our plumbers to deal with the issue swiftly. You could put yourself in a sticky situation if you begin dismantling pipes and cannot reconstruct them.
7. Corroded Steel Pipes
What materials make up your pipes? Are your pipes original, or have they been recently updated?
Pipes–galvanized steel pipes in particular–do not last forever. Steel pipes often corrode after 20 years, while copper pipes can last 50 or more years. For the most longevity, brass pipes can net you 40-70 years.
Corrosion becomes more likely in older homes, as newer pipes have longer life spans, devoid of galvanized steel. If you live in an older home, it may already be time to re-pipe. If you added new plumbing to your house in the past few years, such as an extra shower, post-construction of your home, you could be facing significant corrosion problems.
Ideally, you would have enlarged the critical branch lines as you added new fixtures. Failing to do so results in your pipes working harder than intended, leading them to degrade more swiftly.
Corrosion is invisible unless you dig within the pipes’ framework, meaning you must call a plumber to diagnose this problem for you.
We Can Help Alleviate Water Pressure Issues
Low water pressure in the home can ruin many aspects of your and your family’s lives. If you’re fed up with low water pressure, call Advantage Plumbing & Sewer Co., home to the best plumbing services in Hoffman Estates, IL, at (847) 268-3553 today. We’ll get your home’s pipes back to working order!
