Slow Running Water? Clean Out your Tap Filters
This is a problem that I have discussed previously, but after what happened a couple of days ago I just couldn't help but revisit this topic.
05/06/2020
A couple of days ago I noticed that water from a tap in the kitchen was very sluggish and slow. I had a suspicion that the filter might be blocked and that this was causing the slow flow. My son, on the other hand, said, 'No Mom, this is due to either slow municipal water pressure or something wrong with the geyser."" Ever wanting to be the good mother, I listened to his sage advice. I sent a group message to our HOA to find out if anyone else was experiencing the same problem only to find out that everyone else had perfect water pressure.
This is where you say to yourself, "Do I really need a plumber or could it be something else?". Wanting to save a bit of money, as usual, I just had to grab the locking pliers myself and remove the filter on the end of the tap only to find it full of debris and blocking the water flow. The moral of this story... sometimes the most obvious thing might actually be the problem.
When you find that the water flow from a tap dwindles to a trickle, your first thought would be to call a plumber. But before you do, you might want to check the filter on the tap to see if it is blocked. See further down for instructions on how to clean the filters on all your taps.
Most newer taps these days have a built-in filter on the end of the spout. This filter blocks impurities that can be found in our water supply. The only problem is that we tend to forget that they are there - if we are even aware of this in the first place - and forget to clean out the filters occasionally.
Another factor to consider is the minerals in our water supply. Over time these build up and form a hard crust around taps and fittings and can also help to reduce water flow is not cleaned off from time to time.
The brown stain below is an indication of bacteria in the water. Very worrisome if you drink water directly from the tap!
There is an easy and expensive way to remove scale build up from your taps and filters, and that is to soak these overnight in white spirit vinegar. The acid in vinegar dissolves the lime scale and mineral deposits without any fuss, and the next day you can replace the filters. If that doesn't fix the problem, then you can call a plumber.
How to clean tap filter
1. Use a plumber's wrench to loosen the filter at the base of the tap spout. Once loose, you can unscrew and remove by hand.
2. Place the filter components in some white spirit vinegar and leave overnight.
3. The next morning you can easily clean away the scale. Quite a bit of scale was removed from this single tap - see below.
