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Unregistered
May 30th, 2005, 10:32 AM
I was doing some work to the shower in my hall bath, just replacing the shower/tub valve. I had the main water supply valve in my house turned off for an hour or so. After I had it hooked back up, my girlfriend went to take a shower in the other bathroom so I turned the water supply valve back on. She took a shower, and when she got out, shen told me that the valve must not be open all the way because water pressure was about half of what it is normally. I went and checked the valve and tried it in a few different positions with the same results. Not sure what the name of the valve is, but it's a circle handle that takes a few full turns to open it completely. The water pressure problem is the same for hot and cold water. I tried water in my kitchen sink, and the pressure outside on the front house with the same result. One thing I noticed was that outside on the hose, there is decent pressure when I first turn it on, but after about 5 seconds, you can watch the distance the hose sprays cut in half. I also shutoff the cold water inlet to the hot water heater and then checked cold water pressure throughout the house and it was still low. The only thing I can think of right now is that my shutoff valve has gone bad and is not fully opening. I am remodeling that bathroom and have not yet used the new plumbing I installed. I'm sure it's full of air. Would this somehow cause low pressure throughout the house? Thanks in advance for any help.

Unregistered
May 30th, 2005, 11:48 AM
I checked the outside water pressure today at the front house and it was fine. Can't explain that. So that got me thinking maybe just the back shower head was filled with particles of copper pipe from where I had sawed through in the other bath. I cleaned out some of the crap in the shower head and pressure significantly improved. So I guess that was it.

DUNBAR PLUMBER
June 1st, 2005, 07:47 AM
Sounds like you figured out the problem.


Those stop valves you speak of are notorious for breaking when moved for the first time in months/years.


Thanks for the follow-up!


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