Why Is My Water Pressure Low? Causes and Fixes for Des Moines Homes

If your water pressure is low, start by checking where it happens. One weak faucet or shower usually points to that fixture, while low pressure throughout your house sends us toward the main valve, pressure regulator, supply piping, or a hidden leak.

Check hot and cold water too. If only the hot side is weak, we follow the hot-water piping instead of treating it like a whole-house pressure problem.

Start Here: One Fixture or the Whole House?

Turn on faucets in different parts of your home. If the kitchen sink has normal pressure but one bathroom faucet does not, start with that fixture. If the kitchen, bathrooms, and outdoor faucet are all weak, the restriction is farther upstream.

If pressure is low throughout the house and your water meter continues registering use after all fixtures and water-using appliances are off, that can indicate a water leak and is a reason to investigate further.

When It's Just One Faucet or Shower

Start at the aerator or showerhead. The small openings collect mineral scale and debris, which restricts flow even when pressure in the rest of your plumbing is normal.

Remove the aerator or showerhead and clean away visible buildup. If that does not restore flow, check the fixture's supply stop to make sure it is fully open.

If you have low water pressure in the shower, compare it with the sink in the same bathroom. Strong pressure at the sink points us back toward the showerhead or its supply rather than the whole house.

When It's the Whole House

If every fixture has weak pressure, cleaning one aerator is not going to fix it. We start with the parts of your plumbing that affect the entire house.

• Main shutoff or meter valve: A valve that is not fully open restricts water before it reaches your fixtures.
• Pressure reducing valve: The PRV controls incoming pressure. When house-wide pressure drops suddenly, this is one of the components we check.
• Older galvanized piping: Corrosion and mineral buildup narrow the inside of the pipe and restrict flow. We still find older piping in established homes around Urbandale and other parts of the Des Moines metro.
• Hidden supply-line leak: Water escaping between the meter and your fixtures leaves less flow available inside the house.
• Utility or neighborhood issue: Check with your water provider if nearby homes lose pressure at the same time.

If the incoming water line is corroded, leaking, or damaged, water line repair and replacement fixes the problem before water ever reaches the plumbing inside your home.

How Central Iowa's Hard Water Makes It Worse

Central Iowa's mineral-rich water leaves scale behind wherever water moves through small openings. We usually see it first on faucet aerators and showerheads because those passages clog faster.

Buildup does not stop at the fixture. Mineral buildup can contribute to restrictions in fixtures, valves, and some older piping, while corrosion can further reduce the inside diameter of aging metal pipes. If hardness is leaving scale throughout your home, water softeners remove hardness minerals before they continue building up on fixtures and plumbing.

In Johnston and Clive homes, repeated mineral buildup on showerheads and faucets is an easy place to see what hard water leaves behind.

What You Can Check Yourself

Before calling a plumber, narrow down the problem:

• Test several faucets and showers.
• Compare hot-water pressure with cold.
• Clean clogged aerators and showerheads.
• Make sure accessible fixture shutoff valves are fully open.
• Check the main shutoff if you know where it is and how it normally sits.
• With every fixture and water-using appliance off, check if the water meter is still registering use.

Do not start adjusting or replacing the pressure reducing valve yourself. If the easy checks do not explain a house-wide pressure drop, that is where we take over.

When to Call a Plumber

Call us when pressure drops throughout your home, stays low after the basic checks, or comes with discolored water, visible corrosion, or signs of a leak.

We measure the incoming pressure and work our way through the system until we find where it drops. From there, plumbing repair means fixing the actual cause, such as a failed PRV, damaged valve, or corroded section of pipe.

A sudden pressure drop paired with unexplained water use points us toward a hidden leak.

Get Your Water Pressure Back - Call Bell Brothers

If you have checked the fixtures and valves and the pressure is still low, let us find where the restriction starts. Bell Brothers serves Des Moines and surrounding communities with plumbing diagnosis and repair based on what is actually happening in your home.