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tmday · Dec 31, 2004, 07:24 PM

Our house is on a slab. We have copper pipes. Just recently and rather abruptly we began to lose water pressure. When we turn on the shower the water pours out for about 10 seconds and then drops off to a near trickle. We have not changed or added any fixtures. The showers are both single handle types. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if I am missing any pertinent info.

labman · Dec 31, 2004, 07:35 PM

If it is just the showers, some crud from the pipes may be blocking the heads. Try removing them and cleaning them. If that doesn't help, post back giving details such as well, city water, filters, softener, etc.

speedball1 · Jan 1, 2005, 07:05 AM

Are you on a pump or city water? This loss, is it the entire house or just the two showers? If on city water, has there been any work done on the street main? If on a pump could it be a drop in the water table? Get back to us with the information we need and we'll answer ASAP. Cheers, Tom

tmday · Jan 1, 2005, 02:08 PM

We are on city water. No one else on our street is having the same issues. We do have a water softener but no filters. The pressure loss seems to effect the whole house although most noticeably the shower/bath. With the shower engaged there is not enough pressure to run anything else inside the house, I can go outside and the hose attached to bib on the main pipe will have full pressure.Thanks for helping out.

speedball1 · Jan 1, 2005, 02:51 PM

OK!
That puts the problem in the house system. Try this, turn off the two lower stops on your water softener and open the stop over them in the middle. That will bypass the softener. Now turn the water off to the house and open up the tub and shower valve and remove the cartridge. Check the cartridge inlet ports for any crud that might be in there. Now, with the valve still open, turn the water back on for a minute. You're flushing out the branch line. Do you have a good stream coming out? I'm just attempting to isolate the source of the problem. Let me know what gives and we'll check another branch. Regards, Tom

tmday · Jan 1, 2005, 03:18 PM

My softener does not seem to be like this. Copper pipe runs in has a ball valve before the softener.Copper pipe comes out of softener has a hose bib on it. Softener is in two pieces on is really a tank for the brine I think.

Originally Posted by speedball1

OK!
That puts the problem in the house system. Try this, turn off the two lower stops on your water softener and open the stop over them in the middle. That will bypass the softener. Now turn the water off to the house and open up the tub and shower valve and remove the cartridge. Check the cartridge inlet ports for any crud that might be in there. Now, with the valve still open, turn the water back on for a minute. You're flushing out the branch line. Do you have a good stream coming out? I'm just attempting to isolate the source of the problem. Let me know what gives and we'll check another branch. regards, Tom

tmday · Jan 1, 2005, 03:44 PM

In trying to figure out how to bypas the softener I hit the manual charge button on the softener and now all my pressure is back in its glory. Thanks.

speedball1 · Jan 1, 2005, 03:53 PM

I had a hunch your softener would be involved some how. If you could have bypassed it your pressure would have returned. Glad it was that simple. Cheers for the new year, Tom