Domakihub Clean a Faucet Aerator and Restore Full Water Flow
A five-minute fix that can double your tap pressure without touching a wrench.
Reviewed by Domakihub cleaning pros · 2026-06-23 · 4 min read
If every tap in your home, holiday rental, or hotel room seems to be losing pressure for no obvious reason, the culprit is almost always the aerator — the small threaded tip screwed onto the end of the spout. In Greece's hard-water regions, limescale and fine sediment steadily pack the mesh screen until flow drops to a trickle. The video above shows the whole process in real time; the steps below walk you through it so you can do it yourself in under ten minutes, no plumber required.
Why Aerators Clog So Quickly in Greece
Greece has some of the hardest tap water in Europe, particularly on islands such as Rhodes, Crete, and Mykonos, where calcium and magnesium concentrations regularly exceed 300 mg per litre. Every time water passes through the aerator, minerals precipitate onto the mesh and housing. After a few months the openings narrow, pressure drops, and the spray pattern becomes uneven or fans out at odd angles.
Holiday rentals and hotels face the problem faster than private homes because higher daily usage forces more water — and more mineral load — through the same small screen. A quarterly cleaning schedule keeps guest complaints about 'weak showers' or 'bad taps' off your reviews.
What You Are Actually Cleaning
A standard bathroom faucet aerator is a stack of components: an outer housing, one or two fine mesh screens, a flow restrictor disc, and a rubber washer that creates the seal. Limescale coats the mesh; sediment (rust particles, sand from pipes) blocks the flow restrictor. Cleaning means dissolving the scale with acid and flushing out the sediment — neither task requires special tools or chemicals beyond kitchen staples.
How to Clean a Faucet Aerator: Step by Step
- 1
Remove the aerator by hand
Grip the aerator housing firmly between thumb and forefinger and turn anti-clockwise. Most aerators unscrew without tools; if yours is stuck from scale build-up, wrap a rubber band around the housing for extra grip before trying again. Avoid metal pliers directly on chrome — if you must use them, pad the jaws with a cloth to prevent scratching.
- 2
Disassemble and note the order of parts
Once the housing is off, tip the components onto a white cloth in the order they come out. You will typically find an outer cage, one or two mesh screens, a plastic flow restrictor, and a rubber washer. Taking a quick photo with your phone before you go further saves time during reassembly — the screens and restrictor can look similar from both sides.
- 3
Soak in white vinegar for 30 minutes
Drop all the metal and plastic parts into a small bowl of undiluted white vinegar. The acetic acid dissolves calcium carbonate (limescale) without damaging chrome, brass, or plastic components. For heavy build-up, leave the parts to soak for up to two hours. The vinegar will turn cloudy as the scale dissolves — that is normal and a sign it is working.
- 4
Scrub, rinse, and inspect the mesh
After soaking, use an old toothbrush to scrub the mesh screens gently under a running tap. Hold each screen up to the light: the holes should be uniformly open with no white or brown patches remaining. If a spot refuses to clear, return it to the vinegar for another 15 minutes. Check the rubber washer for cracks; it costs almost nothing at a hardware store and a fresh one guarantees a leak-free seal.
- 5
Reassemble and test the flow
Stack the parts back in the original order — washer, flow restrictor, screens, housing — and thread the aerator clockwise onto the spout by hand until it is finger-tight. Turn the tap on slowly and check for leaks at the joint. A perfectly cleaned aerator should restore the original spray pattern immediately. If the flow is still restricted after cleaning, the flow restrictor disc itself may be the wrong size for your water pressure, and swapping it for a higher-flow model is a straightforward upgrade.
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FAQ
- How often should I clean bathroom faucet aerators in a Greek property?
- In hard-water areas — which covers most of mainland Greece and virtually all the islands — a cleaning every two to three months is realistic for a primary residence. For holiday rentals with high guest turnover, once a month during the busy season keeps reviews clean and avoids emergency plumber calls.
- Can I use lemon juice instead of white vinegar?
- Yes. Fresh lemon juice contains citric acid, which dissolves limescale just as effectively as acetic acid and leaves a fresher smell. The soak time is the same — 30 minutes for light build-up, up to two hours for heavy scale. Bottled lemon juice works too; you only need enough to submerge the parts.
- What if the aerator is still dripping after I reassemble it?
- A drip at the aerator joint almost always means the rubber washer is worn, seated unevenly, or missing. Remove the housing, check that the washer is sitting flat in its groove, and retighten finger-tight. Do not over-tighten — hand pressure is enough to create a proper seal. If the washer looks flat or cracked, replace it before reassembling.