Water pressure down.

Joined
4 Jan 2006
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Location
Yorkshire
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United Kingdom
Ever since some work has been done on the water mains recently the water pressure from kitchen/bathroom taps has been reduced and also the toilet cisterns seem to take ages to refill. don't get me wrong we still have some pressure but it's nowhere near where it used to be. I contacted yorkshire water and they said they haven't had any reports from other people but as I explained the pressure it's down about 20% and most people probally wouldn't notice. I had already turned the incoming water and meter stop cocks on and off several times to clear any blockages that may be present but that made no difference. What should the pressure be!! before they fob me off and say it's fine. I have several pressure gauges and would be able to rig up something, I presume it's just a case of connecting the gauge up to a tap and turning it on !!
 
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I presume it's just a case of connecting the gauge up to a tap and turning it on !!
Not quite. If the pipe is partially blocked, you'd still read the same pressure if there's no flow.
Better to measure the pressure at a modest flow, say 10 litres/minute. You need to know where the pipes run, if you see what I mean. If there's a big resistance the pressure will drop a lot over the length of pipe the water's running through.
Try the flow at your outside tap, full open, and try your neighbour's for comparison. With say 3 bar you should get about say 20 litres/minute, depending...

Sometimes muck sticks in ball valves, tap spouts, etc - have a look.
 
I seriously disagree

The standard legal pressure is 9 litres per min at a working pressure of 10 m/h (1 bar).

If you go of the guideline of running 20 litres per min your pressure unless you have a brand new 25 mm PE pipe would drop to virtually zero

Do all taps seem to be the same pressure and flow. If yes there may be a blockage at the incoming tap (Normally under your Sink) or the external tap (normally in the footpath) or at the ferrule (the part what connects your service to the main outside.

If individual taps are worse than others you may have a slight blockage in individual taps.

However if the water company have caused this and they know theyve undertaken work they have to either send a contractor to check at boundary for blockage or send a plumber to clear internal blockage.

Many different scenarios to poor pressure get the water company out to sort your problem out.
 
Perhaps I wasn't clear. If your standing pressure(no flow) is about 3 bar, (which is typical) then with average pipes, without blockages, you get about 20 litres/ minute flow from a garden tap.

I know of no "standard" pressure of 1 bar, not sure what that's meant to mean.
The OFWAT stipulated minimum is 0.7 bar at the communication pipe, in the Thames water area. Whether it varies around the country I don't know, but I doubt it.
I've measured between 1 bar and 8 bar around London.
 
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Water pressure has now been restored the problem was the internal filter in the water meter which was partially blocked. Took the guy about 5 mins to sort it.
 

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