Low Water Pressure at Home - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

300EVIL · #1 07-15-2002, 09:05 PM

Last weekend i replaced my gas 40gal. water heater in my house. The replacement was easy but now i have low water pressure in the hot and cold side all over the house! Does anyone here have any suggestions to fixing my problem? It's no fun taking a shower under a squirt gun!

Thanks!
Adam

jsmith · #2 07-15-2002, 10:19 PM

both hot and cold? you have any faucets in the basement before the heater & are they low too? here's a shot in the dark - did you have to turn off your water main to do this? i imagine not but just in case if you didn't have a ball valve, that may be the problem. the old design can rot and be problematic when turning on again...

300EVIL · #3 07-15-2002, 10:57 PM

Joe,
Thanks for your insight! I did some more reasearch and noticed the cold water in the basement sink has its original high pressure but the hot side does not. I also rechecked the middle and upper level of the house and the cold and hot are still low.

To sum it up, all i have is good cold pressure in the basement. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Adam

engatwork · #4 07-16-2002, 06:43 AM

You got something plugged up or closed off somewhere Adam.

If ya'll thought the early 70's gas crisis was bad - just wait for the first serious water crisis.

chowpit · #5 07-16-2002, 11:30 PM

We are heading toward a water crisis around here in NC. One city reported having about a 45 day supply of water. Not good.
Several cities are under mandatory water restrictions.

High Rock Lake which hosted a Bass Masters tournament a few years ago is now 18 feet below full. The wildlife is dying by the day.

I can't ever remember having conditions like this around here.

jsmith · #6 07-17-2002, 10:49 AM

we on the east coast think that's bad. we were over in Lost Wages the other week and drove over the Hoover Dam on our way to the Grand Canyon. the water level at the dam is at an all time low - i could see the normal water line and it was way up over where the water was. Arizona is already a dry state and they have all sorts of dire predictions over there. there was a constant threat of forest fires with many park areas closed to the public. the day we were in the Grand Canyon park there were rumors of the park shutting down which would have been an unprecedented event. i shudder to think what would have happened with the two lane blacktop the only way out of there! we are in the midst of global changes which few seem to really understand...

engatwork · #7 07-17-2002, 11:31 AM

Sorry about getting this off topic the way I did but I feel pretty strongly about the lack of H2O. I lived in Saudi Arabia for a period of time and feel that certain areas of the US will look like that desert kingdom within the next 20-30 years if not sooner. Just a matter of time before the desalination plants start being built on the coasts.

#8 07-21-2002, 12:29 AM

It's been a couple of days since the last post, did you figure it out yet? My guess would be that when you turned the water off just upstream of the heater, that valve, a ball vave or a gate valve, just isn't back open to full flow. The basement sink is probably upstream of both the valve (you turned off for the heater replacement) and the heater itself. I haven't seen too many ball valves fail but I can see how maybe the stem could become detatached from the ball and not open the ball. A gate valve can have several problems. The best way to install one of them is with the handle down. That way, if the stem becomes detached from the gate, you can at least push the gate closed to stop flow in an emergency. I've had one stick on the closed position and strip out and not pull the gate back open.
I wouldn't have plumed a house so that when you turn the water off to the water heater, the cold water is off to the rest of the house, but then it's any ones guess on just what happened.
Let s hear what you find.
Ernie

300EVIL · #9 07-25-2002, 12:54 AM

I found the problem! A lot of rust particles caught up in the strainers. They must have shaken off from those old pipes during the change. Thanks for everyones help!
Adam