Any plumbers out there, serious pressure issue with shower only?
Question:We just bought this house it was built in 1998, it has PVC through out and the house is about 1700 sq feet. The master bathroom shower has no pressure at all. It has a Delta 1400 faucet, I replaced the head still no pressure. I called a plumber out to replace the cartridge, they burped the line and put the new cartridge in. I still have no pressure at all, the water trickles out and takes 10-11 minutes to get hot. The sink in that bathroom has fine pressure, the outside house on that side of the house has fine pressure. All the other fixtures are fine, the other bathroom has the same shower system and it works great. The plumber I called out really don't have any more ideas as to how to fix the issue, he said that the PVC run maybe to long as the shower is on the end of the loop, but then said he don't think that can be the problem or it wouldn't pass code here. I don't know what else to do at this point
Answers:
blockage somewhere. its cpvc not pvc. pvc is drain. i would burp it again and make sure you have good pressure on both sides. it should blast out of the faucet with the cart. removed. only other thing would be if they installed any shutoffs near that faucet and their not on all the way. with pressure balanced valves if one side gets low pressure so will the other. still say blockage in water lines or line up to shower head
I think you are saying that instead of copper pipes for water supply, your house has the newer plastic supply lines.
That would lead me to believe that a kink has occurred some where in the reverse direction of the shower in question. Is there a water outlet on the same fixture to run bath water, or is it a shower only? you will have to isolate the exact area where the regular pressure stops and the reduced pressure starts.
It looks like you may be tearing out some drywall to see and repair this problem.
I do not know where you live but in most states PVC for hot water was not code until very recently so I suspect that the plumbing was done after the fact. Low pressure could be caused by too many right angles in the line or too much glue used in the fittings which narrows the inside diameter of the pipe. Run a hose from your hot water heater directly to the shower head or swap shower heads with the one that works to positively eliminate the shower head as the problem. If you only run cold or hot water and you only have low pressure on one then it is a pipe problem. If not a pipe leading to the shower then it might be a pipe problem in the wall leading to the shower head...not fun to fix. Good luck.
Shut off the water, remove the cartridge and turn the water on. If the water flow is sufficient, replace the cartridge, remove the shower head. If there is sufficient water flow, its the head. If not there is probably a restriction in the faucet.
Well first off this should have been caught in your home inspection. You home warranty might be able to cover any repairs. One thing you can try is turn off the water. Open some of the water faucets down stairs and remove the strainer in the spout. Now remove the cartridge in the problem valve. Also take off the shower head off and put a cap on the pipe. Take a Shop Vac and put it on the blow side. Use the shop vac to push the water out of the system and hopefully the blockage. Turn the water back on and let it flush out the shower valve. Then repeat if needed. Put everything back together.
It could be the pressure balancer is froze or obstructed.
I had the same problem on a new house I plumbed about 4 years ago. That's what it was.
With the flow divider obstructed with fine gravel, it could not move and function and pressure was practically zero.
Shower also like yours. Other shower ok also.
The house is on a well, and I had to go back a few times more and clean out shower heads and aerators and such until the well started pumping clean. Anthony paid me for that. He knew it was the well and not my plumbing I did for him.
snoobyb has it right. do that.
Are your pipes in the foundation or overhead? If they're in the foundation, it's possible you have a slab leak, although with plastic pipes that would be very rare. If you have a manifold where all the pipes loop back from the main to each fixture, check that the shut off valve for that fixture is not partially shut. Oh, and call a better plumber.
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