In our old house I had removed the flow constrictors from most of the showers and the sink in the kitchen. Probably illegal in some places, but surely not in Texas. At the new house here in New Mexico the shower needed a little extra oomph. Rather than be a scofflaw and modify the existing shower head (there may be laws here) I just bought a nice old fashioned Speakman 2.5 GPM shower head. Weighs a ton, unlike the little plastic toy I was replacing. Made all the difference. I’m not even sure I use more water since I’m in and out of the shower in no time now.

It seems the bathtub also had a flow reducer. Not certain what the thinking is here. Maybe just hoping you will give up and take a bath with and inch or two of (now cold) water instead of waiting for the tub to fill. I removed the reducer and the results were spectacular. Except the water was now grey and the bottom of the tub filled with grit.

I suppose my water line needed flushing even though this is a somewhat new house. My water heater stopped making that death rattle noise though. Surely a good thing. But our recirculation pump was making very bad noises. I got the name of a plumber from a neighbor.

After a few bathtubs full. The water is clean again. I suppose I flushed the water line for the whole neighborhood. The pump noise also settled down. All is well. I’m done with plumbing for a while.