Low Pressure on Hot Water @ Kitchen Sink Only

[thirdwilliam]

I searched the forums and tried suggestions of many of the "low pressure" posts except for the one that suggested leaving the water one and turning it "on and off" several times into a larger bucket to try and shoot any sort of blockage out of the pipes that way. Just to let you guys know I scoured the forums first!

For about two weeks now the hot water at the kitchen has had horrible pressure. It's not as bad as some of the problems you see on YouTube if you search "low water pressure" but its enough to upset the Wife!

I cut off the water and cleaned the head of the faucet off (relatively dirty but like many others, not enough to slow it down).

The pipes under my sink are not like what I've seen on YouTube. I'd assume this is cos I'm in a mobile home. Many of the videos I've seen online have shutoff valves and these "flexible" pipes that people say to completely remove and blow clean with air. The main plastic pipes that go to the drains in the sink are plastic and then the ones that go to the faucet are copper and run into the "floor" right where the pipes go. There is no removing those!

I'm curious if someone here would know how I would go about troubleshooting where to find a clog? I'm going to try the bucket idea right now. Clark Howard would hunt me down and shoot me if I hired on a plumber for something that would be easily fixed myself so I thought I would reach out. I've lurked these forums for years but this is honestly the first time I've had to reach out for help!

Thanks in advance, Happy Monday!

[Dean3]

http://www.water-heater-repair-guide.co ... ssure.html

This link has a few tips for faucets. It might be best to have a pack of assorted faucet washers handy.

[Greg]

And I sure Clark Howard would be seen crawling around under the sink of his mobile home.

So am I reading it right that you disconnected the faucet and had poor flow directly from the pipes? If so, all you can do is work backwards until you find the problem.

If you have good flow ahead of the faucet, look at a valve problem in the faucet.

Greg

[pcorley]

I have the same problem, I pressure every where els, but at my kitchen sink. I have a 1971 mobile home and the plumbers have no idea what is wrong, and they want to at a great expense mess around until they figure it out. The park had the water off yesterday and when it was turned back on the problem was worse. Please help.

[Greg]

Hi & welcome. Same deal, check the water flow at the faucet first. If the flow is good look at the faucet, if not work backward until you find the problem.

Greg

[DaveyB]

Do you live in a hard water area? The reason I ask is that scale, or calcium, that has come loose from the boiler may be the cause of the problem. The loose pieces would flow happily through the system until they reach a trap - possibly a right angle joint or a poorly made joint that has a piece of the PTFE sealing tape left inside the pipe. There it can start building a little dam which can reduce the volume of water that can pass through.

The other, less likely, alternative is that something has dented a section of the pipe, reducing it's width and causing the same throttling effect.

A quick and "dirty" method to alleviate this problem is to back-flush the hot water system from the kitchen to the boiler. Turn off the water supply where it enters the home, close all faucets, including the washer and dishwasher, shut down the boiler, remove the outlet pipe, and connect the house end of the outlet pipe to a garden hose (run outside). Bring in another hose from the main supply outside, remove the kitchen faucet, and screw the hose onto the hot water pipe. Turn the water on for the hose from the main supply (not for the home) and check the drain hose for scale or calcium being flushed out. If you filter the drain hose through a piece of dark cloth this will be easier.

If you do find scale coming out, consider descaling the boiler before reconnecting everything. Hint: coffee makers have descaling compounds, but they run expensive when you are talking about a 30 or 40 gallon boiler ... they also list their ingredients on the package and the few chemicals actually needed are not that expensive when bought from other sources!

If the back-flush does work, then reconnect everything, put the kitchen faucet back on, but before you turn the water back on, close all the faucets and open only the faucet in the tub and let it run through there for a few minutes - the tub is generally the largest outlet, and so is less prone to blockage, so this will remove any other pieces of scale that got trapped while travelling backwards up the pipe. Finally, try the kitchen faucet again, and see if the volume of flow has improved!

If it has, then great, problem solved. If not, then there is something else going on. Either way, I hope that helps some ...

DaveyB