Low Water Pressure: Causes and Fixes
Weak showers and trickling taps are almost always fixable — here's how to work out which of seven common causes applies to your home.
Weak showers, trickling taps and washing machines that take forever to fill are some of the most common complaints we hear — and low pressure is almost always fixable.
Pressure vs flow rate
Plumbers distinguish between pressure (the force water arrives with) and flow rate (how much can actually pass through your pipework). A lot of "low pressure" complaints in older homes are really low flow, caused by undersized pipework or furred-up old pipe.
Seven common causes
- A partially closed stopcock.
- A blocked tap aerator (unscrew and rinse).
- A failed pressure-reducing valve.
- An old gravity-fed tank system in the loft.
- Limescale narrowing pipework.
- An undersized incoming supply pipe.
- Genuine mains pressure variation from the water company.
Quick checks before calling us
Make sure both your internal stopcock and the external stop tap are fully open. Clean tap aerators. Time how long a cold tap takes to fill a one-litre jug — over 12 seconds suggests a genuine flow problem worth investigating properly.