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Your Shower Feels Like a Dribbly Mess? Let’s Fix That Weak Stream!
We’ve all been there – going for that relaxing hot shower after a long day only to be punished by a stream of water that couldn’t knock over a sleeping kitten. Low water pressure can totally kill your shower experience (not to mention making it take forever to simply rinse the shampoo out of your hair…ugh).
But don’t go replacing those rubber duckies with a gallon jug just yet! The solution may be as simple as installing one of those nifty little shower pump gadgets. Let me break it down for you in a way that hopefully doesn’t put you into a coma-like state:
How to increase the domestic water pressure in your house? Feeble showers are often caused by gravity-fed systems in older houses or from living in mountainous areas where the supplier struggles to provide decent pressure from the get-go. Your standard home water tanks are rarely high enough to let good ol’ gravity do its thing and push water with any real oomph.
I used to live in this charming but extremely hilly town that made my shower pressure so frail, I’m pretty sure my Yorkshire Terrier could’ve out-powered it. Not a great way to start the day, am I right? Something had to be done…
In This Post:
Power Shower Pump
Enter: the shower power pump! These bad boys work by giving your water a big kick of extra pressure so it comes blasting out of your shower head with straight-up aquatic fury (in a good way). Basically you’re dialing things up to “Power Shower” mode with the help of a little intelligent pump technology.
Now before you go ordering one off the internet and crossing your fingers it works, you gotta know there are a couple different types to consider:
Head Cases (Positive, Negative or Universal?)
Let’s discuss the positive and negative head shower pumps. The first key factor is whether your shower setup is a “positive head” or “negative head” situation based on where your water tank is located. If the shower is below the tank (at least 60cm lower), you’ve got positive head and need a positive head pump.
However, if that shower is level or above the tank height, it’s gonna be negative head city. In that case, you’d need to go with a negative head pump or the jack-of-all-trades universal pump that can handle either scenario.
For example, my old humble abode with that dreadful dribbly shower turned out to be a negative head setup. Installing a universal pump literally gave my shower streams the power-up I needed to finally feel cleansed!
Pump It Up (One Impeller or Two?)
The next Pump Particulars 101 consideration is single impeller or twin impeller. The impellers are what actually spins the water and builds up that sweet, sweet pressure.
Single impellers are fine for just boosting your cold water to that all-important electric shower unit. But for mixing up your hot and cold water before it hits the shower head, you’ll want that twin impeller action.
I’m a firm believer that few things in life are better than a robust, powerful hot shower – so twin impeller was a no-brainer “Worth It” move for me.
The Pro Tips (Form an Orderly Queue!)
Okay, here are a few pro tips If you wanna make the most of your new pump-supported shower sanctuary:
Pipe Diameter Matters
Those puny lil’ 15mm pipes? Pump’s gonna hate ’em. The fatter the pipe, the better for those high pressure streams to flow. Aim for the standard UK 22mm stuff for max pump effectiveness.
What Kinda Pump You Got?
A built-in pressure tank is great for preventing little leaks from cycling the pump on/off constantly. Speed controllers are super energy efficient and prevent that annoying “WaterHammer!” effect too.
So in summary, my shower-deprived friends, the solution to your #LowPressureProblems could really be that simple. A well-chosen shower pump might just be the affordable solution to finally getting that high-powered, rejuvenating shower experience you deserve!
No one should have to endure the shame of a weak, feeble shower stream day after day. Reach out to your local pump supplier, get their recommendations, and you too could be basking in pumped-up shower glory sooner than you think!
