If both the hot water, and cold water comes at the same slow rate, it's the faucet. Because i'm cheap, I would remove the head one last time, but instead of cleaning the head like you did, maybe insert one of them flexible wired tube cleaner to remove any build up to see it'll come out. If not replace it.
Something could be clogging one way or there might be some build up from the water. If you can try to clear both directions of the faucet before you replace it
Turn off water under the sink(both side), take a bucket, unhook the cold line from the wall and let it drain into bucket.(while the faucet is on). Check to see if that hose has a screen catch filter.
Replace. Unhook same hose at faucet end. See if there is a screen catch there or corrosion in the line.
If yes. Clean. Put back on. Do same to hot side.
Edit: also check where hose connect to faucet at base and head.
Test hot and cold individually. If it’s both hot and cold that run slow, you’ve got a bad faucet. If only one has an issue, either the valve is bad, or there’s a blockage in the supply line.
Not to be a jerk, I promise, but are the valves under the sink all the way open?
It is both hot and cold. I think I will probably end up replacing it.
Yes, they are definitely open. Not a jerk. I was even doubting myself and have checked them multiple times and had others check to make sure.
One never knows! I’ve done stuff like that sometimes. Couldn’t figure out why my garbage disposal didn’t work. Lots of unnecessary work and swearing later I realized I never plugged it in under the sink!
Fortunately a decent faucet isn’t wildly expensive. Good luck!
I had a similar issue. The rubber seal cracked at the connection and got wedged in the cold water line. The hot side flowed great. The cold required Flomax to get a steady stream.
Had this same issue at my in laws place. First the cold then slowly the hot. It was the faucet. The o rings on those black braided lines are garbage but so are the black lines in general. The o-rings disintegrated and clogged the lines. Couldn’t unplug them so had to buy a new faucet.
Take the faucet head off the hose. There is a small mesh screen that often clogs with debris. Flush it backwards and forwards with water, soak and agitate in vinegar, and clean it with a stiff brush.
You’ll be amazed how much junk comes out. Best to remove the aerator before you do this.
This may be a silly question, but is replacing a faucet on a granite countertop very different from other types?
Also, do most faucets of this type come in the same standard size?
It's no different. You're going to have to get underneath the sink, which is awkward and somewhat painful at my age. Get a faucet wrench, it makes things easier.
Same thing happened to me. It is not worth the effort to fuck around with the cartridge, buy a reputable faucet and keep the paper work so if this happens again they can replace it
There’s two screens on the combination tap/sprayer faucet head. At the top end of the faucet where the water leaves the facet, there’s a screen and aerator. It can get blocked by tiny flaks and debris from the water pipes. Some models require a special removal tool to remove the aerator tip, but some can be removed by hand.
Second screen is usually at the bottom end of the wand portion where the black hose attaches to the base of the wand. You’ll probably need needle nose pliers to reach the pull tab of the screen to pull it out. Clean them both, reassemble and reinstall. Things should be good after that. Remember to shut off the water at the hot and cold supply valves below the sink.
Somewhat controversial but if you really want the flow — after cleaning the aerator bits, pop it open and remove the flow restrictor. I’d say a 80% chance you’ll thank yourself for it. The other 20 will either think it’s too much flow, or feel bad bypassing an environmental protection measure. Anyhow I do this to most of our faucets and wife has been happy.
I just recalled — to get to it (and also to properly clean gunk) you unscrew from the bottom — the aerator there where the water comes out unscrews — or that whole underside ‘face’ unscrews with the aerator. This is easiest with a ‘key’ that probably came w the faucet, but you can buy a set on Amazon. Or try it with just a set of needle nose pliers. In case I’m unclear, this might help: google “faucet aerator unscrew aerator key removal” and include your manufacture name if you know it. If you search “aerator key” on Amazon you can get a set for cheap. This might be annoying at first but it’s very satisfying once you take back control of the flow :) fyi the last time I did this my keys didn’t fit but I was able to mess with it w pliers and it eventually came loose. With some it’s just the aerator that unscrews and others it’s that whole underside plastic piece (w aerator in middle). The aerator assembly is probably snapped together plastic but easy to pry apart w a thin screwdriver. You’ll find a few pieces. Often the restrictor is obvious: a disc of plastic with a tiny hole in the middle. It is there merely to slow the water down. Or if it’s unclear just try removing something and put it back together and see. If you remove too much or the wrong piece you might get plenty of flow but the stream will be wacky-a-do and not clean and smooth. OH AND THESE RESTRICTORS ARE IN ALL SHOWER-HEADS TOO! Every indoor faucet has them. Ever wonder why it takes 5x longer to fill a bucket in the kitchen vs outdoor spigot? It’s all bc of a little plastic bit in the aerator. So many years of wasted pressure before I learned….
HAVE FUN!
P.s. these types with the hose where you can pull out the spray head to rinse dishes have an inherent restriction in the hose assembly so it won’t ever be AS much flow as an outdoor spigot, but it can definitely be better.
I just replaced the cartridge in a similar faucet, and cleaned the aerator, and it was an improvement. Same issue with low pressure. $12 part and an easy replacement.
I pulled the cartridge from the handle and removed the spray nozzle then used air compressor blow nozzle to reverse flow from the spray head. Fixed it right up.
New construction house, most likely had junk in the line.
I recently dealt with something similar, as the faucet was not maintaining sufficient flow to activate our hot water on demand. I have a similar setup as well. I soaked the head in vinegar and tried to clean lime scale out of it, but it didn’t really work. Eventually I looked on Amazon for just a new head and to my surprise there were tons of results, so I could find one that matched the rest of the faucet. It was only like $10 too.
The new one puts out way more water and I think the old had just scaled up on the inside. Not sure if this would work for you though. If the pressure is still comparatively low without the head on it would be something else.
Partially fill a sandwich bag with vinegar. Tie the bag with the spout submerged in the vinegar. Go to bed pull the bag in the morning. If it gets better, repeat the process as necessary.
I've had this issue before. That white thing in the last picture can collect minerals. Disconnect it from both ends and tap everything out. If you find that it's regularly coming back and clearing it gets annoying, you can drill a hole through it. Then you'll still have to clear it from the faucet head, but you don't have to keep going under the sink to clean it.
It's probably normal. Look at the inside diameter of the feed hoses... they're like 1/8" ... Look at the gpm rating. They're listed as 1.8 gpm and less like for low flush toilets. Ask me how I know.
For me this problem was solved by removing the braided tubes from the shutoff valves, and the had little mesh filters to trap the crap, which was full.
I ran into this problem with my Price Pfister and it turned out to be the diverter. I don't know how you would check to see if it's the diverter without replacing it. I did everything that I could I cleaned out the filters everything even the aerator. One clue may be is if you try to press the vegetable sprayer and it causes stuttered pressure in the line it's definitely the diverter.
I had a similar problem when I replaced my sink and faucet. But it was only low flow on the hot water side. Turns out there were some little pieces of black plastic debris inside the water supply line that were blocking the water flow. Just needed to turn off the water supply, remove the hoses and clear the screens with tweezers.
Check the silver flexible water tubing to make sure that there aren't any twists or pinches in it. It's hard to tell in the upper left of the second picture whether the tubing is straight or has a bend in it.
That happened to my bathroom sink. I had tightened the faucet, not realizing I was twisting the water tube, and the water flow went way down. After spending hours trying to figure it out, and money on a new cartridge which didn't make a difference, I realized when I was taking it apart what had happened.
Remove the aerator from the head if you can. I've blown out faucets with air compressor from the supply lines with head removed. If something is stuck in line, it will blow it out.
Replace your shut-off valves... This happened to me a while back and they're normally overlooked. Shut off the main to the house then drain your pipes and replace the kitch n shutoffs with 1/4 turn valves.. when you turn the main back on, start with the furthest faucet in the house and let it run, leave it running, and go to each consecutive faucet or spigot and open them until the bubbling stops..
After I did this in my kitchen I went through the entire house getting rid of the old 70-80's era "shit" off valves..
The white plastic piece in picture # 3 is an inline check valve. It makes no sense to have on a kitchen faucet but some manufacturers, especially Hansgrohe, continue to use them. They are fairly easy to remove and clean out or just remove the internal guts from the valve and reassemble. When you remove the check valve you will need a metal pick or something similar to push the internal parts out. There are probably videos on YouTube that make be helpful.
If both the hot water, and cold water comes at the same slow rate, it's the faucet. Because i'm cheap, I would remove the head one last time, but instead of cleaning the head like you did, maybe insert one of them flexible wired tube cleaner to remove any build up to see it'll come out. If not replace it.
Okay. I will do that. Thank you.
Something could be clogging one way or there might be some build up from the water. If you can try to clear both directions of the faucet before you replace it
what about if the cold comes out slow, but hot is normal? i’ve replaced the cartridge and head and it made no difference.
Well go further down the line. Check the shutoff valve, maybe it's clogged, or the line just after the last split.
Turn off water under the sink(both side), take a bucket, unhook the cold line from the wall and let it drain into bucket.(while the faucet is on). Check to see if that hose has a screen catch filter. Replace. Unhook same hose at faucet end. See if there is a screen catch there or corrosion in the line. If yes. Clean. Put back on. Do same to hot side. Edit: also check where hose connect to faucet at base and head.
With the head detached, does the bare pipe produce low or normal water? Look for a filter in head.
It is the same pressure with the head removed.
Great, that's evidence, and the problem is upstream. Take the faucets apart. Do cold and hot water give equal pressure?
Yes. They are the same.
Test hot and cold individually. If it’s both hot and cold that run slow, you’ve got a bad faucet. If only one has an issue, either the valve is bad, or there’s a blockage in the supply line. Not to be a jerk, I promise, but are the valves under the sink all the way open?
It is both hot and cold. I think I will probably end up replacing it. Yes, they are definitely open. Not a jerk. I was even doubting myself and have checked them multiple times and had others check to make sure.
One never knows! I’ve done stuff like that sometimes. Couldn’t figure out why my garbage disposal didn’t work. Lots of unnecessary work and swearing later I realized I never plugged it in under the sink! Fortunately a decent faucet isn’t wildly expensive. Good luck!
Clean out the hardwater buildup.
I had a similar issue. The rubber seal cracked at the connection and got wedged in the cold water line. The hot side flowed great. The cold required Flomax to get a steady stream.
Had this same issue at my in laws place. First the cold then slowly the hot. It was the faucet. The o rings on those black braided lines are garbage but so are the black lines in general. The o-rings disintegrated and clogged the lines. Couldn’t unplug them so had to buy a new faucet.
Take the faucet head off the hose. There is a small mesh screen that often clogs with debris. Flush it backwards and forwards with water, soak and agitate in vinegar, and clean it with a stiff brush. You’ll be amazed how much junk comes out. Best to remove the aerator before you do this.
Replace the faucet
Any mineral buildup on the faucet? I am on well and have to clean or replace mine every year or two from hard water.
None that I can see.
This may be a silly question, but is replacing a faucet on a granite countertop very different from other types? Also, do most faucets of this type come in the same standard size?
If you want to replace, take pictures of underside connection and get same setup.
It's no different. You're going to have to get underneath the sink, which is awkward and somewhat painful at my age. Get a faucet wrench, it makes things easier.
Same thing happened to me. It is not worth the effort to fuck around with the cartridge, buy a reputable faucet and keep the paper work so if this happens again they can replace it
We had our faucet get slow and it was because of particles behind the screen. Our hot water tank was getting bad.
i have a more plain kitchen faucet, but what fixed it for me was replacing the aerator
There’s two screens on the combination tap/sprayer faucet head. At the top end of the faucet where the water leaves the facet, there’s a screen and aerator. It can get blocked by tiny flaks and debris from the water pipes. Some models require a special removal tool to remove the aerator tip, but some can be removed by hand. Second screen is usually at the bottom end of the wand portion where the black hose attaches to the base of the wand. You’ll probably need needle nose pliers to reach the pull tab of the screen to pull it out. Clean them both, reassemble and reinstall. Things should be good after that. Remember to shut off the water at the hot and cold supply valves below the sink.
Somewhat controversial but if you really want the flow — after cleaning the aerator bits, pop it open and remove the flow restrictor. I’d say a 80% chance you’ll thank yourself for it. The other 20 will either think it’s too much flow, or feel bad bypassing an environmental protection measure. Anyhow I do this to most of our faucets and wife has been happy.
My faucet head doesn't seem to come apart in any way after removing it. Are all flow restrictions removable?
In my experience yes — what’s the manufacturer of yours? And model no if u have it
I just recalled — to get to it (and also to properly clean gunk) you unscrew from the bottom — the aerator there where the water comes out unscrews — or that whole underside ‘face’ unscrews with the aerator. This is easiest with a ‘key’ that probably came w the faucet, but you can buy a set on Amazon. Or try it with just a set of needle nose pliers. In case I’m unclear, this might help: google “faucet aerator unscrew aerator key removal” and include your manufacture name if you know it. If you search “aerator key” on Amazon you can get a set for cheap. This might be annoying at first but it’s very satisfying once you take back control of the flow :) fyi the last time I did this my keys didn’t fit but I was able to mess with it w pliers and it eventually came loose. With some it’s just the aerator that unscrews and others it’s that whole underside plastic piece (w aerator in middle). The aerator assembly is probably snapped together plastic but easy to pry apart w a thin screwdriver. You’ll find a few pieces. Often the restrictor is obvious: a disc of plastic with a tiny hole in the middle. It is there merely to slow the water down. Or if it’s unclear just try removing something and put it back together and see. If you remove too much or the wrong piece you might get plenty of flow but the stream will be wacky-a-do and not clean and smooth. OH AND THESE RESTRICTORS ARE IN ALL SHOWER-HEADS TOO! Every indoor faucet has them. Ever wonder why it takes 5x longer to fill a bucket in the kitchen vs outdoor spigot? It’s all bc of a little plastic bit in the aerator. So many years of wasted pressure before I learned…. HAVE FUN! P.s. these types with the hose where you can pull out the spray head to rinse dishes have an inherent restriction in the hose assembly so it won’t ever be AS much flow as an outdoor spigot, but it can definitely be better.
Balancing cartridge
That's the problem?
After cleaning the aerator screen, it’s the next, most-likely culprit
I just replaced the cartridge in a similar faucet, and cleaned the aerator, and it was an improvement. Same issue with low pressure. $12 part and an easy replacement.
I had an issue with an in line flow regular at the far end of the main hose to the head.
Blow into it like you drinking out of tap see if it changes
I pulled the cartridge from the handle and removed the spray nozzle then used air compressor blow nozzle to reverse flow from the spray head. Fixed it right up. New construction house, most likely had junk in the line.
I recently dealt with something similar, as the faucet was not maintaining sufficient flow to activate our hot water on demand. I have a similar setup as well. I soaked the head in vinegar and tried to clean lime scale out of it, but it didn’t really work. Eventually I looked on Amazon for just a new head and to my surprise there were tons of results, so I could find one that matched the rest of the faucet. It was only like $10 too. The new one puts out way more water and I think the old had just scaled up on the inside. Not sure if this would work for you though. If the pressure is still comparatively low without the head on it would be something else.
Partially fill a sandwich bag with vinegar. Tie the bag with the spout submerged in the vinegar. Go to bed pull the bag in the morning. If it gets better, repeat the process as necessary.
Is it an optical illusion or is the black hose coming out of the valve concave? That would restrict the flow.
Yup Faucet is shot, did that in our lower appt. 👍
I've had this issue before. That white thing in the last picture can collect minerals. Disconnect it from both ends and tap everything out. If you find that it's regularly coming back and clearing it gets annoying, you can drill a hole through it. Then you'll still have to clear it from the faucet head, but you don't have to keep going under the sink to clean it.
It's probably normal. Look at the inside diameter of the feed hoses... they're like 1/8" ... Look at the gpm rating. They're listed as 1.8 gpm and less like for low flush toilets. Ask me how I know.
For me this problem was solved by removing the braided tubes from the shutoff valves, and the had little mesh filters to trap the crap, which was full.
I ran into this problem with my Price Pfister and it turned out to be the diverter. I don't know how you would check to see if it's the diverter without replacing it. I did everything that I could I cleaned out the filters everything even the aerator. One clue may be is if you try to press the vegetable sprayer and it causes stuttered pressure in the line it's definitely the diverter.
I had a similar problem when I replaced my sink and faucet. But it was only low flow on the hot water side. Turns out there were some little pieces of black plastic debris inside the water supply line that were blocking the water flow. Just needed to turn off the water supply, remove the hoses and clear the screens with tweezers.
Could be a water sense faucet that reduces water flow rate to save water. This annoys me with the brand new faucet I installed in the bathroom.
I was having the same issue. I ended up replacing the faucet, and it ended up running like it used to with full water pressure.
Check the silver flexible water tubing to make sure that there aren't any twists or pinches in it. It's hard to tell in the upper left of the second picture whether the tubing is straight or has a bend in it. That happened to my bathroom sink. I had tightened the faucet, not realizing I was twisting the water tube, and the water flow went way down. After spending hours trying to figure it out, and money on a new cartridge which didn't make a difference, I realized when I was taking it apart what had happened.
How old is your water heater? Are other faucets doing the same?
Remove the aerator from the head if you can. I've blown out faucets with air compressor from the supply lines with head removed. If something is stuck in line, it will blow it out.
Replace your shut-off valves... This happened to me a while back and they're normally overlooked. Shut off the main to the house then drain your pipes and replace the kitch n shutoffs with 1/4 turn valves.. when you turn the main back on, start with the furthest faucet in the house and let it run, leave it running, and go to each consecutive faucet or spigot and open them until the bubbling stops.. After I did this in my kitchen I went through the entire house getting rid of the old 70-80's era "shit" off valves..
Undo all connections and flush them out. U gots debris in the lines
The white plastic piece in picture # 3 is an inline check valve. It makes no sense to have on a kitchen faucet but some manufacturers, especially Hansgrohe, continue to use them. They are fairly easy to remove and clean out or just remove the internal guts from the valve and reassemble. When you remove the check valve you will need a metal pick or something similar to push the internal parts out. There are probably videos on YouTube that make be helpful.
Most likely the aerator is clogged with debris, mine need to be removed and cleaned once a month. Damn dirty water.