Sydney Plumbing Puzzles: We’ve Lost Hot Water Pressure in My House?

It can be both frustrating and worrying to lose hot water pressure in the plumbing of your Sydney home. Your local contract plumber will be able to help you, but before you call them why not see if you can find out the cause for yourself?

One of the biggest reasons for losing hot water pressure is because your pipes have begun to rust. This will most likely be the cause if you live in a home that was built before the 1980s, as it wasn’t until the 1980s that we stopped using galvanised iron pipes in plumbing. The main reason for stopping using galvanised iron pipes is because they rust. So how does rusting pipes make you lose hot water pressure?

When you turn on the hot water tap, the water will run through your hot water system. If your pipes are rusting, the chunks of rusting metal will build up and start to cause blockages in and around your hot water heater. These blockages will restrict the flow of your water, so that’s why your hot water pressure will be low. But what if your pipes aren’t galvanised iron that has begun to rust?

If your house was built after the 1980s then your pipes can’t be rusting, but the same issue of blockages around your hot water heater can still apply to you. Do you know if the area you live in suffers from hard water (water that has a high mineral content)? If your water is hard water then your loss of hot water pressure may be because chunks of mineral have broken free and blocked your pipes. So what can you do?

To find out where the blockage is, connect a garden hose up to the bottom of your hot water heater and test the flow. If the flow is poor, then the blockage is either due to the heater being full of sediment, or the blockage is before the water heater. However, if your flow is quite good then the blockage is after your water heater.

Now you have done some of the research work, you can call your plumber to come out and fix the problem for you. The last thing you want to do is try and do your own plumbing and damage your pipes.