Clean every faucet aerator
Annual · typically August
Why it matters
Every faucet in your house ends in an aerator — a screw-on tip with fine screens that smooths the stream and catches debris. It's the designed choke point, which means it's where mineral scale and grit accumulate, and a loaded aerator produces the great misdiagnosed symptom of home plumbing: "our water pressure went bad." Pressure is usually fine; the screen is just full.
One more clue this card explains: aerators often clog right after winter plumbing work or a freeze scare, when disturbed pipes shed scale downstream. New grit after any plumbing event is normal — clean the screens and move on.
What skipping it costs
$100–$400
The aerator is the little screen at the faucet tip, and it catches every fleck of mineral and pipe grit the house sends. Clogged, it produces the exact symptom — 'our water pressure is bad' — that launches a hundred-dollar service call and, with the wrong plumber, a pressure-system conversation. The actual fix unscrews by hand and soaks in vinegar.
Two ways to get it done
Do it yourself
You'll need: Pliers with a rag or rubber band (to protect the finish), White vinegar, A small cup or sandwich bag, Old toothbrush.
- Unscrew the aerator from the faucet tip — hand pressure first, then pliers over a rag if it's stubborn. (Modern "hidden" aerators recess into the spout and need the little plastic key that came with the faucet, or a rubber band and patience.)
- Note the part order as you disassemble — screen, mixer, washer — or just photograph it.
- Soak everything in vinegar for 30 minutes; brush off the softened scale; poke any stubborn grit back out through the screen.
- Reassemble, screw back on, run the water. The before-and-after is usually dramatic enough to make you do the whole house, which is the idea.
- Showerheads are the same physics: bag of vinegar rubber-banded over the head for an hour, brush, done.
- While you're touring every faucet anyway, glance under each sink — you're passing every supply line and trap in the house on this chore.
Hire it out
$75–$125National fair range — local labor moves this number.
There's no honest standalone hire for a screen you can unscrew by hand — but weak flow that survives a clean aerator at ONE faucet is a worn cartridge, and that's a fair plumber errand at $75–$125 if you'd rather not disassemble a faucet body. Pro tip that saves real money either way: Moen, Delta, and Kohler all honor lifetime cartridge warranties — a phone call gets the part mailed free, and then you're paying labor only.
Weak flow at EVERY faucet after clean screens is the one version that's a real service call — that's pressure-regulator or supply-line territory, and it pairs with your annual water-pressure gauge check to give the plumber actual numbers to work from.
Ask the tech
- Is the weak flow at one fixture or every fixture? (One = aerator or cartridge. All = pressure regulator or supply — different conversation.)
- If it's the cartridge, what's the faucet brand? Moen and Delta mail free replacement cartridges for life — did you check before quoting a part?
Red flags you're being upsold
- A repipe or pressure-booster conversation that started with one slow bathroom faucet. One fixture is never a whole-house problem.
- A new-faucet pitch for a $2 aerator screen's worth of grit. Faucets die of cartridges and finish, not of clogged screens.
- Charging a full service call to unscrew an aerator without telling you that's what it was. An honest plumber says 'that was the screen' and shows you.
The call
DIY, always — this is the single easiest 'fix your water pressure' move in plumbing, and knowing it makes you immune to a whole genre of upsell.