I just bought a 10 year old house a few months ago and about a week ago my hot water pressure dropped by about half. We have a gas hot water heater that was inspected before the home was purchased and was deemed in good working order. I've checked all the water lines around the hot water tank and the surrounding area and see no leaks of any kind to explain the loss of pressure. My cold water seems fine, and I'm still getting some hot water, just not full strength. We do tend to have hard water in the city I live in... so could it be mineral build up? If so, how would I rectify this? The winters also get pretty cold here, but the weather has been pretty mild the past several weeks so I'm not sure if the "thaw" might have attributed to anything. Any suggestions?

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Originally Posted by newbiechick

I just bought a 10 year old house a few months ago and about a week ago my hot water pressure dropped by about half. We have a gas hot water heater that was inspected before the home was purchased and was deemed in good working order. I've checked all the water lines around the hot water tank and the surrounding area and see no leaks of any kind to explain the loss of pressure. My cold water seems fine, and I'm still getting some hot water, just not full strength. We do tend to have hard water in the city I live in...so could it be mineral build up? If so, how would I rectify this? The winters also get pretty cold here, but the weather has been pretty mild the past several weeks so I'm not sure if the "thaw" might have attributed to anything. Any suggestions?

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Have you noticed a pressure change in just one faucet or all? Could be a partial blockage in faucet if just one. I took the bottom element out of my water heater and using what looks like an icing spatula for doing cakes I scooped about 5 gallons of lime chips out of my water heater. Looking back I should have just replaced it. However my problem was causing my element to burn out and lower volume of my heater than the rating... did not affect my pressure. Hope this helps.

Hey Newbie.

Could be a few things.

First, I will assume you mean every faucet in the home.. yes? If not, please let me know.

If every faucet in home, I would start by flushing that water heater... so easy to do. Here, you hook reasonable quality garden hose to water heater drain (at base of heater) and WITH WATER ON just open the water heater drain and let drain full bore to outside somewhere for 5 minutes. That should flush out sediment in tank (be aware here that after you flush heater IF water heater drain leaks it is because sediment got caught in drain.. so may need to cap with a brass hose cap with washer (available at all home supply stores).. so be prepared when you do this.)

If that did not fix it.. then I start at next place.. look at shutoff into heater.. that is involved... requires cutting into pipes.. let us know if you want to tackle this.

Has anyone worked in the house/building lately?

It may simply be that ten years later the inlet/outlet to the heater have been chocked down by electrolytic deposit... that is, that dissimilar metals cause electrolytic/deposition of ions/metals, etc... and that big hole has become small hole... BUT would need to look at inlet/outlet of heater to ascertain that.

Has the city/town worked on hydrants in you neighborhood lately (quick call)? If so, then not a surprise to hear of reduced pressure... check on that, too.

See what YOU can do... let us know. Good night!

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