Before You Call a Plumber...
If the water flow from a tap has dwindled to a trickle, you might want to check the filter before you call a plumber.
06/10/2019
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!
ABOVE and BELOW: Build up of hard scale that has accumulated in a one year period.
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.
BELOW: While a lot of debris fell out when the filter was unscrewed, you can still see some remaining in the filter.
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.
