Is there any way I can increase the water pressure in our bathroom, without having to buy new equipment?

Question

We rent a one-family house which has a regular bathroom with a tub and shower upstairs. Downstairs, in an unfinished basement, there is also a half-bath with just a toilet/sink/shower.Tihe hot water tank is in the basement. We just can't seem to get any water pressure when we are trying to take a shower upstairs or when we work at the kitchen sink. We have lived here since April 24, 2006. Our landlord lives right next door. I hate to bother them if there is nothing that can be done anyway. Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts? It is also very hard to regulate the water temperature in the shower as far as hot and cold. It seems to be either very hot or very cold before you finally get it adjusted.

Answer 1

Your regulator valve (controls the pressure from the main line) may be going bad (if you have one). They are pretty much standard these days. You may need to empty your hot water heater and "backflush" your water lines. It could also be as simple as checking your shower head and kitchen taps (anywhere you have low pressure) for mineral deposits like calcium...just take them off and remove any buildup and replace.

Answer 2

First of all, nothing short of spending thousands of dollars on new pumps, pressure tanks, and ripping all of your old pipes out of the wall and replacing them with all new larger diameter pipes will actually increase ones water pressure, and even then all these measures may not really do that much. There has is no such thing as a shower head that will increase your water pressure and anyone who tells you anything differently simply does not know what they are talking about. Certain shower heads CAN increase the velocity {force} of your water, which does in fact give you a better shower. The problem is that most people who suffer from low water pressure have absolutely no clue what shower head to buy. Just going out and buying a shower head and removing the flow restrictor does NOTHING. Removing the flow restrictor only increases the flow rate and not the velocity. The secret to getting a good quality shower if you have low water pressure is this:
1. You have to buy a shower head that is engineered from the drawing board for low water pressure. Don't fall for a simple sales pitch that says that a shower head will work for low pressure. 99% of the shower heads that claim to give you a better shower with low water pressure do absolutely nothing other than empty your wallet.
2. Most consumers are clueless when it comes to buying a shower head. They purchase shower heads without any idea as to what they are actually buying.
3. When buying a shower head you MUST purchase it from a company that specializes in this item, that has tested hundreds of shower heads, and has been in business for a long time. A guy selling shower heads out of a closet in his apartment isnt the person that you would want to do business with.

Answer 3

Try this technique as air might be in your water lines.

My problem was only in the hot water lines. Every time a valve was opened, the pipes would rattle and have a popping sound. I tried applying water hammer arrestors and putting foam padding around the pipes where they were fastened against any framing members. All of theses failed and the pipes continued to rattle. I read on a website that the sound may be caused by air trapped in the lines. My ultimate solution was to open all the valves and then one by one start closing them. I started closing valves closest to the tank and worked my way to the furthest point from the tank. I noticed when I did this, air was released from the lines. I also released the emergency valve on my hot water tank and air was released from the top of the tank. Apparently I had an air pocket trapped in the top of the hot water tank. This solution worked for me, and I hope it is helpful to someone else that is searching for a solution that is really easy, but apparently hard to diagnosis.

Answer 4

Try the devices that oxygenate the water. You attach them to the faucet. They don't actually increase pressure or water flow but they might give you what you are looking for. I've seen them in the catalog, Home Solutions. You could find them by Googling. Just buy from a company that will let you return it if you aren't satisfied.

Answer 5

the age of your position leads me to imagine that the pressuse stability /anti-scald area of your bathtub valve were given some debris in it even as the water heater became worked on. Take the 'guts' out of the valve and look at/sparkling it. take the gadget and shake it, you should listen some thing sliding decrease to and fro freely. If no longer replace it with a sparkling gadget. Kohler and Delta have 2 parts of their taps, the decrease back one is the rigidity stability gadget. Moen is a a million Piece layout.