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I am having trouble with low water pressure in my kitchen faucet. It started happening gradually over timeIt is a single-handle, with a sprayer nozzle. From reading other posts here I'm pretty sure its a diverter valve...bear with me as I've never done any sort of work on my sink. The house was built in 1993 so I'm assuming it was installed somewhere around then.

Since I thought it might be a diverter valve and I don't know what I'm doing I set out to find a manual for the faucet on what parts I might be looking for and instructions on fixing it. There's a "Kohler" stamp on the side of the sink itself so I assumed that it was from them. I contacted their support and uploaded pictures of the sink through the Kohler contact page who in turn said that it was not a Kohler faucet.

Side question: Can you have one brand of sink and another brand of faucet?

So I have some pictures of my setup and am hoping someone might be able to either help me identify what I have and/or help me with what I might need to replace or do to fix this. Or suggest that I just call a plumber.

Kohler logo stamped on corner of the sink: Kohler logo on sink

Full view of the sink: Full view of the sink

I think this is the diverter valve?

Diverter valve

This is the water line; it's split between the the main kitchen faucet and the dishwasher. Water line

I've created a full album of the handful of pics for this on Flicker if interested. There's also a video of how the water pressure is working here: video of low water pressure

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    unscrew the aerator cap. There will be a screen and a plastic flow device. Clean any debris or calcium deposits. or soak in white vinegar.
    – ojait
    Commented Sep 5, 2015 at 3:42
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    I don't believe this is the original sink from 1933. Nor the faucet. Open and close the shut off valve (from the photo) a few times to loosen any debris. disassemble the faucet handle to expose the valve handle seals and look for obstructions there, too. But always unscrew the aerator cap. 8 out of 10 times this is were blockage occurs due to the screen and aerator restricting water flow.
    – ojait
    Commented Sep 5, 2015 at 3:50
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    @ojait I hadn't even thought about the aerator cap. I did that, cleaned it out, and it's like a brand new faucet. That was totally the problem, or at least the main problem. If you post that as an answer I can credit the point to looking at the aerator cap. Thanks again!
    – Peter Tirrell
    Commented Sep 7, 2015 at 18:54
  • alright. glad it worked out for you.
    – ojait
    Commented Sep 7, 2015 at 20:12

3 Answers 3

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Open and close the shut off valve (from the photo) a few times to loosen any debris. disassemble the faucet handle to expose the valve handle seals and look for obstructions there, too. But always unscrew the aerator cap. 8 out of 10 times this is were blockage occurs due to the screen and aerator restricting water flow

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    Well, not unless there was a 1933 house here, and they tore it down and built a 1993 house around the sink, no, its not an original 1933 sink...
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 14:15
  • For the record, I would have sworn the OP's question had the year as 1933 when I first viewed it! "My eyes".
    – ojait
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 21:49
  • @Ecnerwal- I'm not seeing things; it did say 1933, but was edited.
    – ojait
    Commented Sep 10, 2015 at 2:03
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Whilst this may not be the cause of your loss of water pressure you really should also look into replacing this shut off valve. The corrosion that shows here indicates that this has been leaking some and eating away at the metal of the pipe and fittings. Left long enough this can lead to very serious leak.

enter image description here

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Sinks are, in general, delightfully standardized, so you can use any brand of faucet with any brand of sink.

I have no idea what brand of faucet you have, but if you can't sort that out to find parts (look carefully on the faucet itself, often the underside of the spout or near the base) replacing the faucet entire is a perfectly good option (IMHO that's a fugly one I'd replace in a heartbeat, but perhaps you like it.)

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  • Interesting, that's good to know. I hadn't really thought about replacing it altogether, although I can't say I'm partial to the existing one or anything. What kind of faucet are people installing these days?
    – Peter Tirrell
    Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 14:13

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