My shower pressure in my upstairs bathroom is fantastic. However, the same cannot be said for the downstairs bathroom (ground floor). Given the fact that upstairs is disadvantaged, this does not make sense unless there is a pump serving that bathroom alone which i don't think there is. So i want my downstairs shower to reflect the upstairs one. I'm not entirely sure but i think the question is how do i decrease the pressure in order to increase water velocity. Or how to I increase the flow to increase velocity. My hot water is supplied by a gas boiler.
Plumbing – Why is the downstairs shower pressure lower than upstairs
plumbingshowerwater-pressure
Related Solutions
Official term is "water velocity" but for domestic plumbing this isn't really a thing you need to concern yourself with stick to pressure and flow rates. To answer some of your questions all in one:
The flow rate can vary between showers due to the plumbing that supply's them also the pressure can vary for the same reason, they can also have water restrictors that slow the flow rate down.
In Australia this is due to regs stipulating maximum flow rates for water conservation reasons, ( I will always remove these as I hate a weak shower).
As for the flow rate you can use a flow cup to check the flow rate on a unrestricted tap and a pressure gauge to check pressure available.
You can attach a booster pump to your water supply but if this is legal in your location I do not know, the use of a booster pump will also depend on the supply pipe you have to connect to and what the pressure is already if it is near the output of the pump there is no point installing the pump.
This depends on what your current plumbing system looks like.
If you have 3/4 inch copper coming into your house and 3/4" copper into the shower valve then yes you would have to upgrade your whole house - doubt this is it.
If you have 3/4-1 inch copper coming into your house and 1/2" copper on the shower valve line then you would just have to upgrade that line. That might be easy or very very costly because sometimes you have to open up walls that you don't want to.
Whatever it is you need to figure out where the shower valve branch diverts from the main line. Then you can see if the branch is smaller or if it is easy or hard to get to.
Related Topic
- Water – Why isn’t the hot water in the shower hot enough
- Plumbing – Could our new plumbing be to blame for our new downstairs toilet and upstairs spare bath being clogged
- Plumbing – Understanding the combi-boiler
- Plumbing – How to increase the water pressure in the shower in spite of water-saving hardware
- Water – Issue with loss of pressure in shower
- Water – What heating system do I have, and what can I do about water pressure in the shower
- Plumbing – Water Pressure Pump Location
Best Answer
Your downstairs shower has a restriction of some sort in the water supply. Start at the showerhead and work backwards to find it. You need to check pressure while flow is happening - a restriction will allow full pressure when there's no flow, but will cause a large drop in pressure when there is flow.
For the easy possibilities, check any supply valves to be sure they are fully open, and check that you don't have a limed-up or otherwise overly restrictive showerhead. Other issues can be much more involved to find/resolve - my classic warhorse of a tale is the shower/tub with terrible flow on the hot water side, due (found after I reached the point of disassembling pipes, because something was clearly very wrong with them) to one elbow being 95% full of solder, leaving only a tiny hole for the water to pass through.