low water pressure in shower

[The Dave©]

Just moved into a new house... renting, actually, as we moved half way across the country. Anyway, I intensely dislike the water pressure in the shower. The pressure is great everywhere else in the house, including the tub faucet next to the shower. Pressure from the shower is almost non-existant. I couldn't fidure out how to take apart the existing hand-held shower head, so I bought a WaterPik Shower Massage, removed the water restrictor (yeah, I know, not supposed to do that), and installed it. The pressure from the shower still sucks. There is not enough to use the shower massaging settings, and barely enough to rinse off with. What can I do to increase the water pressure from the shower? Thanks.

[Dennis Turner]

The low pressure compared to what you are used to is probably due to the shower valve itself rather than the showerhead. The newer valves are limited by law as to how much water can flow through them per minute. I'm not sure what the limit is, but I do know that my new home (25 years) did. I consulted a plumber I trust about this and was told that the law now requires low flow shower valves. He mentioned that if I wanted to I could probably drill out the lines on the valve to allow for a bit more flow, but I really didn't want to try that as it sounds like an easy way to really make a mess.

That said, replacing the showerhead with a Grohe head did help quite a bit although it's still not up to the standard of the older home.

[Jim-Poncin]

Maybe somebody put a water saving constrictor on the shower pipe.

[Pete R]

That's the most likely scenario for rental units. Whenever we're looking for a new apartment the first thing we check is the plumbing, to see if there's decent water flow (or if not, whether we can "fix" the "problem"). Most units we've seen the past few years have had very poor water pressure in the shower, not from easily removed flow constrictors, but by water saving valves and other methods that would be very expensive to fix. We simply kept looking at other places to rent.

[Ross Mac]

There might be a low flow restrictor plugged up with sand or gravel. I had this problem in a brand new house and since the shower was the first substantial water used the sand found it's way into the shower head....good luck...

[MisterSkippy]

Shut off valves open all the way?