What's Causing Your LOW WATER PRESSURE?

@SalamanderPumps

Low Water Pressure Explained and Solved

Summary:

💧 Understanding Low Water Pressure: Many UK homes face low water pressure and flow issues. The video explores simple solutions, primarily using Salamander Pumps, to increase water pressure without re-plumbing.

🔄 Flow vs. Pressure: Flow and pressure are related but not the same. Low flow can occur with high pressure and vice versa, affecting shower experiences noticeably.

🏠 Gravity-Fed vs. Mains Systems: Many UK homes use gravity-fed systems, leading to lower pressure in some areas. The historical context of the system explains why it remains prevalent.

🧑‍🔧 Improving Pressure with Pumps: Installing pumps, such as Salamander shower pumps, can help increase both hot and cold water flow, enhancing shower performance.

💡 Types of Pumps and Configurations: Different pumps, such as positive head and negative head pumps, are available based on the home's water system configuration.

📈 Using Accumulators for Boosting Flow: An accumulator like the AccuBoost stores water pressure and provides a boost when needed, which can help supply multiple showers simultaneously.

Insights Based on Numbers

0.7 bar: This is the minimum pressure the water company is legally required to provide at the property boundary, a critical value for understanding household water pressure.

15 meters head: Equivalent to 1.5 bar, illustrating how much elevation is needed to achieve effective shower pressure, a challenge for typical homes.

Flow Rates for Optimal Performance: At least 1 litre per 30 seconds per side of the pump is recommended for consistent operation, indicating the importance of adequate inflow rates.

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#plumbing #plumbingtips #homeimprovement

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[MrKHAN-mbqh]

Protect this gentleman, this man is an institution, Thank you very much Sir.

[RegSchmo]

Roger - just wanted to thank you for your content and commend you for the advice offered. As a Chartered Surveyor of some 40 years I find the information you make available to be invaluable to DIYers, home owners and students alike, and very well presented. Where were you when I was a student! (oh yeah, no internet in those days) Frankly someone is missing a trick here - you should have your own TV programme thats relevant to most of the country's housing stock and not just dream homes on Grand Designs

[kaihendry]

Got a love for Salamander for excellent customer service after I bought the wrong pump.

[depniff]

I spent a lot of time looking into pumps for my gravity system but there seemed to bit a lot of issues with sound and them wearing out top soon. My plumber suggested swapping to a pressurised system instead and its been great. I needed a new cylinder and a few pipework changes but I've now got great mains pressure on hot and cold and I've gained lots of space by removing the pipe and tank in the loft. No worries about pumps.

[jimgeelan]

I simply started with removing the flow restrictor from the shower head

[Society.x.]

Caused by too many houses connected to a victorian mains system .

[KennyEvansUK]

I ended up buying a pump express accumulator tank, 500 litre, as were getting 1 litre a minute on the main. First we had a salamander boost which helped the combi actually work, then we enquired about a new poly pipe main and they wanted 5 grand to install it. The pump and tank system cost me a grand and gives 20+ litres a minute at 3 bar. Absolutely stunning showers now and we can open numerous taps and flush toilets without any problem.

Quite a mission to install as the tank is huge and ideally must be on a concrete floor as it's half a tonne. But it went in nicely and I'm made up with the massive pressure and flow rate.

[MuhammadRehanSaeed]

What if you are running on mains pressure?

[devjon]

I keep prevaricating. We have a 3 bed 1950's built mid terrace that had central heating installed about 20 years ago. It was a traditional system with a cold water tank in the loft, hot water tank in a built in cupboard in one of the bedrooms, and a Glow Worm 50 FF boiler in a cupboard on the landing. Our central heating lady says whatever we do, don't get rid of the boiler as it's bomb proof. The problem is that the shower pressure is not very good. The tank in the loft is raised up which helps, and we have a handset that is designed for low pressure systems and does help a bit.
We thought about a shower pump but am a bit concerned about noise and vibration ( before I retired I repaired electrical motors/ pumps / generators and I've stripped down a fair few domestic pumps ) been retired a decade so not sure if things have progressed much. Another possibilty that our plunber mentioned was fitting a System tank. The third option is a Heat Pump, I've followed Rogers videos over the years and he does seem to be mellowing about their use 😂 As I said, decisions, decisions...

[gdfggggg]

I live in Bristol, and there are many large Victorian houses with one lead pipe feeding them. You can turn on the tap in the bottom, then no water in the top. Many of these large old houses are split into flats without the water input being upgraded.
I recently refurbished one and had the pipe work upgraded with 3 separate 25mm pipes straight from the main in the road. The water pressure is as good as my modern house. Often, the problem is the tiny lead pipe from the road.

[markdowns]

What about if your on a combo boiler at low mains pressure?

[rmw]

Never seen or heard of a cold water tank for decades. So antiquated.

[justinneal]

Roge, I converted my system to take a 250l indirect unvented when I moved in 8 years ago. I manually dug a trench and installed a 25mm MDPE pipe. All well and good except the communication pipe to my meter in the pavement was and still is, only half inch. Systems mediocre at best. With two bathrooms, I'm dropping the unvented back out the roof into the old airing cupboard and installing a new 240 tank to feed it with a pump dedicated to the x 2 showers we have. Large output combis, unvented, all great as long as you have a decent main, but even then, in my neck of the woods, SE Water will rate the pressure down so that they lose less out their aged infrastructure

[eddiereed]

Rodger i think you will find that the majority of homes in uk are mains fed hot water systems either by combis or unvented systems, I am old enough to remember the days when you had to have 1 days supply in header tank, thankfully those days have passed but by people in the industry fighting to get the archaic water regs changed to allow the use of unvented systems and getting rid of overflow pipes on w.c installations, There's a topic you could make a good few vlogs on.

[viewer.]

I have been renovating my home, when we bought the place a few years ago we had to replace the boiler. At the time I opted for the cheapest and biggest combi I could afford knowing I needed it to cope with the house size growing but also I would likely rip out for a system better suited to a multibath and bigger house.

I had a little obsession with making everything as simple as possible, pipework takes the shortest and most direct route possible apart from where the pipe comes out of the boiler there's only one hard 90 where it goes to a tap or bath. I am also simplifying the heating system massively and that has included 30sqm of underfloor heating.

Most plumbers told me the boiler had no chance keeping up. But it turns out the obsession with how the water flows and it's restrictions means it can keep up. I can run more than one hot tap and heat the home with good balancing of both the radiators and ufh.

[therealdojj]

With new pipework everywhere from the mains the pressure was great
Until we fitted the water softener...

[brianp]

We have a new build... We have all the elements of a conventional set up but the hot water tank is unvented and pressurised which gives good pressure to the shower.. Just means it's difficult to work on if there's any issues but on the whole it's good

[nigelcouldwell]

brilliant but could do with something showing a bungalow with emersion storage and tank in loft with very little head...water in bathroom is unbelievable slow...over 30 seconds to fill 1000milliletre jug

[TheIrishLeprochaun]

Nice video!
I was wondering if it's possible to convert a vented HW & CH system to an unvented HW, but keep CH as vented?
I have a back boiler stove so need the CH to be open, but I have a well for my cold water so I've great cold water pressure. Would I be able to swap my copper cylinder to an unvented one?
It means I could get rid of the cold water tank too.
But I'd have to leave the expansion tank in the loft to keep the CH vented.
I think it would be okay as they are seperate systems right?

Technically I suppose the CH water could get to 99-100c and boil, which could then make the unvented HW get to 99c, but I dont think it would be dangerous as the water in the CH would boil off and overflow to the expansion in the attic before it could possibly raise the HW to over 100c right? Basically the HW temp is capped at 99c because the CH water is capped at 99c before boiling off.

The only issue I could see is that the safety valve on the cylinder would trigger before the CH water boils off (usually at 95c right?).
But I dont think that's an issue. As even if the power failed and the stove pump died, AND the valve failed, the CH water would still boil away as usual.

I've spoken to a plumber friend of mine and he said it might be possible, but is very unusual. I'd be very curious of your opionion!

I think this way would be ideal, as I wouldnt need to install a thermal store or anything, meaning my stove would keep heating the rads efficiently.
Plus it means I dont need to install a whole-house pump. (already have the well pump)

Any advice would be great thanks!

Love the content!

[Reprogrammed_By_SEGA]

Get an electric shower with built in pump from Mira. No storage tank or cylinder. If you need hot water anywhere else get an instant water heater.