View Full Version : Water pressure
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 06:48
Its 7.40 in the morning and I need a shower but I have no water pressure, the tap just dribble a bit... Is this because everyone else on my street also needs a shower at 7.40?
I never have constant pressure, it varies throughout the day and apart from it almost always being shit in the mornings there is no pattern to it .... It's starting to get on my tits, as in combination with a tired boiler i often find my self in a freezing shower after the water pressure drops below what the boiler requires to make it heat the water... The solution is (at least to keep the water hot) to put the central heating on, but twice I have forgotten I have put it on and come back to the house on a hot sunny day to find the house is an oven... Not ideal for many reasons!
So, what can be done about shit water pressure? I do I just have to put up with it?
The Grand Wazoo
16-07-2010, 08:48
First thing - did you turn the tap enough when you last turned the water on?
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 08:54
Yep...
This is the sink tap, turn right for cold left for hot, up and down for pressure ...
http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/0d887cec.jpg
This morning with the pressure turned up full there was a dribble ... Normally it blasts out...
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 08:55
You can see in that picture the tap is only just on, the flow this morning was less than that at full on
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 08:57
.... How cute is my cat?!?! ... I think that photo needs a caption competition
He must have been watching this guy
-UTdhK0lwuw
Tony Moore
16-07-2010, 09:45
Hi Hamish,
Is it a storage system or combi? I had exactly your problem a while back caused by the cold water header tank valve only filling the tank very slowly. Since (our gravity fed) shower both hot and cold come off the same header tank then we lost most of the pressure since the tank was nearly empty most of the time. Changed the float valve out and all is working again.
If you're combi though then I dunno. Leak or blockage in cold supply somewhere?
Cheers,
Tony
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 09:48
i think its a combi... its a boiler that heats the water and central heating... thats a combi right?
i think its a combi... its a boiler that heats the water and central heating... thats a combi right?
Not nessecerily.... do you have a hot water tank? If not, you've certainly got a combi!
Tony Moore
16-07-2010, 10:02
Hi Hamish,
Our boiler heats both water and central heating and it's not a combi. I dunno why they call them combis really. Anyway, if you have a hot water storage tank then your system is not combi. If you don't have a hot water tank then the (combi) boiler comes on as soon as your run a hot tap and heats the water immediately and then goes off after you shut the tap off. The pressure of the hot water in that case is dependent on the mains water pressure.
In the storage system the boiler heats your hot water storage tank using coil of pipe that runs inside it. It will keep the hot water in that tank up to the preset temperature. The water that comes out of the hot tap is originally from the cold water header tank which feeds the hot storage tank. :scratch: I'm not explaining this very well! :doh:Anyway, the hot water pressure in this case is dependent on how high the header tank is and how full it is.
Cor, I need a rest now...:lolsign:
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 10:21
yeah, it sounds as though i have a combi then... i dont have a tank... unless its hidden in a room i havent found yet..... .... but i doubt that :)
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 10:24
He must have been watching this guy
-UTdhK0lwuw
ha yeah ...
Grubby would be saying "eh mate... erm, your not doing that right ... this is how you do it..."
http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/14b414ca.jpg
".....dickhead!"
The Grand Wazoo
16-07-2010, 11:40
Hamish, I mean is it turned on enough at your rising main?
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 11:41
whats a rising main?
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 11:42
... well i can guess actually... where the water comes into the house?
how would i know how to find that?
Mark Grant
16-07-2010, 12:23
The stop tap Hamish, often under the kitchen sink but can be anywhere.
Checked it is fully on, might be worth turning it off then on again so the washer inside moves a bit.
Will look something like this:
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/15440/Plumbing/Pegler-Brassware/Pegler-Stop-Tap-15mm?cm_mmc=GoogleBase-_-Datafeed-_-Plumbing-_-Pegler%20Stop%20Tap%2015mm
Mark
The Grand Wazoo
16-07-2010, 12:29
Like Mark said - yer rising main looks just like that!
When you moved in, did no-one tell you where to find it in case of emergency/floods/freeze-ups?
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 13:02
il have a look ... nope no one said... who should have said?
Ali Tait
16-07-2010, 13:11
A good idea to know where it is,in case you have a leak!
Spectral Morn
16-07-2010, 13:41
The rising main could also have the on off tap under your stairs as ours is.
Are the stairs directly in front of the main entrance to the house and is that entrance directly opposite the street if so I think if you have a boggy hole under the stairs it will be in there. Though as others have said it can be in the kitchen, under the sink.
If the pipes are noisy i.e a constant swishing gurgling sound then you probably have a burst somewhere. Has this problem always been a problem or only since this year and when things got warmer ? The winter was very cold and burst pipes are common when they warm up.
Regards D S D L
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 13:48
i dont think anything is burst, the problem is intermittent... il have a look for the tap when i get home ...
What the... Is this the Art of Sound, or the Art of Plumbing - you're on the wrong forum, mate! ;)
I'd support the rising main theory - first place to check, as may not be fully open. You need to know where it is anyway, as you will need it when you spring a leak!
The Grand Wazoo
16-07-2010, 16:05
You've gotta know where it comes in Hamish - low pressure or not. I thought the folks you bought the house from might have told you where it was.........or you might have asked. If you don't know about these things, I guess you'd never think to ask.
How old is your house, Hamish?
Our previous house (about a hundred years old) had the stop-tap cunningly hidden under a hatch in the floorboards, just inside the front door!
Of course I only found it when I needed it most. While putting in new kitchen cupboards I managed to 'find' the lead pipe that went from the kitchen up to the loft. It was buried in the wall and I 'found' it with a drill! :doh:
That's when I discovered where the stop-tap was and that it didn't work!
Sitting in about four inches of cold water with my finger over a hole in a pipe for a few hours while waiting for the water company to turn up and shut the water off in the street was great fun. It stopped being funny though, when they discovered that the street tap had somehow moved and they needed to excavate a large hole in the pavement just outside our front door. Which was nice!
DO find it, mate, AND test it! ;)
Spectral Morn
16-07-2010, 16:25
How old is your house, Hamish?
Our previous house (about a hundred years old) had the stop-tap cunningly hidden under a hatch in the floorboards, just inside the front door!
Of course I only found it when I needed it most. While putting in new kitchen cupboards I managed to 'find' the lead pipe that went from the kitchen up to the loft. It was buried in the wall and I 'found' it with a drill! :doh:
That's when I discovered where the stop-tap was and that it didn't work!
Sitting in about four inches of cold water with my finger over a hole in a pipe for a few hours while waiting for the water company to turn up and shut the water off in the street was great fun. It stopped being funny though, when they discovered that the street tap had somehow moved and they needed to excavate a large hole in the pavement just outside our front door. Which was nice!
DO find it, mate, AND test it! ;)
:eek: :(
Regards Neil
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 17:25
Mike that's really funny....
Stop tap ....
http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/8b72e281.jpg
On all the way... Next
The Grand Wazoo
16-07-2010, 17:36
Right, that's eliminated that then ..........& you've learnt something.
Do you think that there might possibly have been some work done upstream of you - has the road been dug up recently? If so, they may not have returned things to normal afterwards. Has the water been a funny colour at all recently?
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 18:15
Nope... Ita been like this since we got here... We had the same sort of boiler in the last house and had the same issue there!
The Grand Wazoo
16-07-2010, 18:32
Is it possible to isolate the boiler from the water system temporarily - if you can do that (with the boiler swithed off too) & the pressure goes back up, then you know it's the boiler. If not, then it's your incoming supply. There may be a stopcock in the street that's not fully open. I'd also speak to your neighbours too - see if they have similar problems.
I'd think your supplier is obliged to provide a certain minimum pressure.
The Vinyl Adventure
16-07-2010, 18:35
It happens with cold water too, so it must be from outside ... And probably varies because of neighbours usage... Right?
The Grand Wazoo
16-07-2010, 18:42
I'd think so. If the incoming pressure is low, then you're going to be affected far more by the neighbours flushing the bog than if it was high to start with.
I'd contact your supplier if I were you. Low water pressure has health implications as well as being a nuisance when you get in the shower.
Had low pressure here too (we live at the top of a hill) until the water board flushed the pipes out, then we had brown water for a few days afterwards. We have a water filter unit by the kitchen taps fed off the mains to purify drinking water and I couldn't fit new cartridges fast enough before they got blocked solid with rust particles :(
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