loss of water pressure in only certain areas of my house
got a strange problem here… water pressure is fine for my wetbar sink, and half-bath. for my kitchen sink, main bath, and tub, the pressure is bad. this gradually started to happen over the last couple weeks, but for the last two days, water trickles out of the kitchen and main bath sinks. checked the screens in both faucets, little bit of debris there (small round rusty pellets), but all is cleared out now. can i somehow flush the pipes in reverse from the faucets, to clear out any debris that may be in the pipes? would i use air, or water to do this? checked all pipes in the basement/crawl, and there are no leaks that i can find anywhere. i’ve got a mix of both copper and galvanized….at some point, my home was added onto, and the newer pipes are copper. it’s a spaghetti mess trying to map out the pipes, as some don’t seem to go anywhere i’m puzzled, any help is very appreciated!
Low flow and rusty flakes are common signs of old galvanized iron pipe, but “round” pellets sounds suspicious. Do you have a water softener?
yes, water softener is pretty old…could be the culprit…..city water btw, if that makes any difference. if i bypass the softener, would this improve things pressure-wise?
I know that the media (resin beads) can get into the house pipes and are a pain to flush out. Some of the pros on this site may know best way to proceed. If media is coming out of the softener, I’d say bypassing it until repaired may be a prudent first step. Your normal water flow may not be restored until all affected pipes are flushed clean of the resin beads.
