How to Repair an Outdoor Faucet with Low Water Pressure

Yard work is made easier when your outdoor faucet provides steady water flow at optimal pressure. Low water pressure in an outdoor faucet can be due to any of several circumstances. Check these instructions to correct low water pressure in your outdoor faucet.

• Crescent wrench
• Screwdriver
• Container for small parts
• Tool tray
• Flashlight to check pipes

You need to know whether the low pressure happens intermittently or is consistent. Intermittent water pressure reduction could be simply due to other use of water inside your home. When you want to use the outside faucet, check that no other water use such as a shower, dishwasher or washing machine is occurring. If you have consistently low water pressure throughout your home, not just at the outdoor faucet, this could be due to reduced municipal water pressure, or to a slow buildup of minerals from hard water in all your pipes.

Be sure when you want to use the outside faucet that no one is having a shower, doing laundry or washing the dishes. The best time to water gardens and lawns is between meal times before noon, or in the early evening after dinner to allow maximum water flow to the yard. Also inspect the turn handle of the outdoor faucet and the spigot, to ensure that water is not being lost to leakage of any kind. Replace washers or packing nuts if leakage is the cause of intermittent low water pressure. If the faucet has a strainer, remove and clean it of any blockage. When you put the strainer back in, the water pressure should improve immediately.

Check all the faucets and water-using devices in the house to see if they all have low water pressure. This problem could then be due to low pressure in your municipal supply, resulting from pipe leakage or overextension of municipal pipe systems. If your pipes and plumbing are very old and you have hard water, mineral deposits in all the pipes could be reducing the pipe volume, slowing your water flow. To fix the first problem, consult your plumber to come and test the water pressure. For mineral deposit buildup in pipes, flush the pipes with a calcium, lime and rust remover. If pipes are very rusty, such that water comes out red or dull brown as pipes are being flushed, you may have to replace the oldest pipes. If these solutions do not fix the problem, consider adding a water pressure booster to your residential plumbing system.

Step 4: Replace the Outdoor Faucet

If all these steps fail to solve low water pressure at your outdoor faucet, examine its connection to the indoor plumbing of your house. The problem may lie with the indoor valve that redirects water to the outdoor faucet. If that valve is functioning correctly, you will need to purchase and install a new outdoor faucet. An outdoor tap should be replaced every 15 to 20 years.