Low Water Pressure in Shower Only

[drew]

Hello-
I recently purchased a 22 year old house that has well water with a water softener unit. The well is 200’ deep and the pressure is supposedly
set at 60’psi (written on the softener unit, can’t find the actual gauge) I have normal water pressure from all the faucets in the house (1 1/2
bath) but the upstairs shower has extremely low water pressure. I mean extremely low! I actually freeze in the shower when its 85° outside.
Before I call in a plumber to see if I have a problem, is there anything that I can do on my own to increase the water pressure? Any advice
would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Elaine

[GuestParticipant]

If it is a volume problem, try taking the shower head off and seeing if it has a flow restrictor in it as most of them do. Code says 2.5 gallons per minute is all they can do, but some older heads will do more than that. Make sure the flow restrictor is not plugged up as the holes are very small. There is also a possibility that the valve or the piping from the valve to the shower head is also restricted in some way. If you are getting good volume from the shower with the head off, it’s a restricted head. If not, call in the professionals.

[elaineParticipant]

Thanks Rick, the problem was that the showerhead wasn’t assembled properly. A little rubber gasket was not seated inside correctly, once that was fixed the pressure returned to normal.

Elaine

[Author]

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