How do I find out what my water presure is?

by **kbrownie** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:53 pm

Hi all,
I am just about to move, but as always her who must be obeyed! want a new bathroom amd kitchen fitted. I don't pretend to a be a knowledge when it comes to plumbing. (electrics and plastering/dry-lining more my thing)
To the question;
My new house has combi (worchester ge) looks like it's knocking on in years. But seems to work fine.
Regarding the water presure, how would I find out if it was compatible with lovely new bath with shower attachment taps and lovely new shower? Not choose shower yet! well not really choose anything at all! like I said her who must be, has picked everything (like they do)
Joking apart (but it's true)
whirlpool bath with bath filler taps and a shower attachment on. Plus hopefull thermostatic shower.
Advise will be thankfully taken, before I spend money on something daft!
KB

by **htg engineer** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:11 pm

To get an accurate reading of your mains water pressure - purchase a Mains Water Pressure Test Gauge - there's one on plumbworld.co.uk.

Can normally be bought for around Â£10. Not much when you think of the money you could waste buying a shower or bathroom suite that might be no good - or wont work properly with poor water pressure

Hope this helps
.

by **kbrownie** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:54 am

Cheers htg engineer, will do that
KB

by **SaintBryan** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:23 pm

I have a similar question. I've bought a Mira Combiflow pressure balancing shower and the manual says that the maintained pressure needs to be between 1 bar and 5 bar and that the static pressure must be no more than 10 bar. I expect to be able to measure static pressure easily enough using a standard pressure gauge, but where can I get a gauge to measure maintained pressure?

by **chris_on_tour2002** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:34 pm

hi kbrownie,

many bathroom fittings also come with required flow rate info, just get a bucket, turn on the cold tap and let it run into the bucket for a minute and see how much you get (usually somewhere between 8 and 12 litres, 8 litres low pressure, 12 litres is good)

by **htg engineer** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 8:05 am

The water pressure is measured in Bar. This is not affected by the size or length of pipes.

If the pressure is low then upgrading the pipe to a larger diameter won't make any difference.

The flow rate is the amount of water coming out of the pipe in litres per minute.

The flow rate depends on the Pressure and size/length of the pipes. Back to the mains.

If the flow rate is poor but the standing pressure is good - then there could be an obstruction or a pipe upgrade could be needed.