I moved into a condo last year and about six months into my stay the pressure in my upstairs shower shot up to an unbelievable rate. The pressure is so high now that I can drain the 40 gallon water heater in under five minutes, and by the time I'm done with my shower I'll be up to mid-calf in water in the tub from it flooding the drain. I contacted my building maintenance guy and he says that the pressure is regulated by the condo association and has nothing to do with the plumbing in the house. I disagree though, because of these three things:
1) The pressure is not always super high. Sometimes I'll get in the shower in the morning and the pressure is super high, but then I'll hear this "clunk" somewhere around the faucet handle and the pressure magically drops back to a normal flow. Sometimes it will stay like this for a week or two, sometimes it will go back to ripping my skin off the next time I use it.
2) When the pressure is really high, if I hold the shower pull thingy that's on the bath spout and turn the shower on and off rapidly for about a minute I'll sometimes get it to "clunk" again and go back to normal pressure for a while. I used to be able to replicate this pretty easily, but recently it hasn't worked as well which makes me think the problem is getting worse.
3) None of the other faucets in the condo change pressure; they’re all steady day in and day out no matter how high or low the pressure is in the shower.
So my question is, is there something in the plumbing between the shower faucet control (which is a single nob style that you turn to the left for hot and to the right for cold) which is supposed to be regulating the pressure but is failing for some reason? My maintenance guy is bullheaded and 100% convinced that the problem lies with the condo association...I could really use this info to convince him that he needs to take a second look. Or maybe I’m wrong and it is the feed to the house that’s the problem. Either way I need to get this solved…it’s driving me crazy!
Thanks in advance for the help!
1) The pressure is not always super high. Sometimes I'll get in the shower in the morning and the pressure is super high, but then I'll hear this "clunk" somewhere around the faucet handle and the pressure magically drops back to a normal flow. Sometimes it will stay like this for a week or two, sometimes it will go back to ripping my skin off the next time I use it.
2) When the pressure is really high, if I hold the shower pull thingy that's on the bath spout and turn the shower on and off rapidly for about a minute I'll sometimes get it to "clunk" again and go back to normal pressure for a while. I used to be able to replicate this pretty easily, but recently it hasn't worked as well which makes me think the problem is getting worse.
3) None of the other faucets in the condo change pressure; they’re all steady day in and day out no matter how high or low the pressure is in the shower.
So my question is, is there something in the plumbing between the shower faucet control (which is a single nob style that you turn to the left for hot and to the right for cold) which is supposed to be regulating the pressure but is failing for some reason? My maintenance guy is bullheaded and 100% convinced that the problem lies with the condo association...I could really use this info to convince him that he needs to take a second look. Or maybe I’m wrong and it is the feed to the house that’s the problem. Either way I need to get this solved…it’s driving me crazy!
Thanks in advance for the help!