It's like a sandblaster.

April 18, 2009 1:32 PM

Will our high water pressure work well with a low-flow shower head?

We've just moved, and our new home has insanely high water pressure. The water comes out our shower head so fast that our water heater runs out of hot water very quickly. Can we switch our shower head to one that restricts the flow, or are those only for under-pressured situations? Is there anything else we could do?

The water heater is turned up all the way already. We've tried just turning the taps minimally, but turning them on at all gets a blast of water, so that's not very effective and difficult to do as well. This is in Eastern Texas, if that's relevant in any way. Thanks!

posted by WowLookStars to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

Yes! We just went through this at our house. Our water pressure is great (high, as I prefer it), but we were running out of hot water 10 minutes into a shower. We ordered this Delta adjustable low-flow shower head and the problem was solved. We still get a nice flow of water, but now the hot water lasts MUCH longer. I'm super picky, but if you don't mind a weaker or smaller stream of water, you could try any old low-flow shower head from your local hardware store.
posted by geeky at 1:46 PM on April 18, 2009

Do be careful. Turn up the water past low flow and it will feel like you are scouring your skin with high-pressure sand. Ouch! Maybe it was just the shower head I was using but that was my experience.
posted by Foam Pants at 6:59 PM on April 18, 2009

Check to see what your water pressure actually is by buying a gauge and checking the faucet outside. If you've got more than 60 psi or so running through your house, it can cause problems with your plumbing.

We have really, really high water pressure at our house - a check at our hose bib was at 160 psi and counting when we turned it off. We had a pressure regulator valve for the house plumbing, but not for the irrigation system. No wonder we kept blowing out sprinkler heads! Installation of a water pressure regulator last week by a professional sprinkler system guy cost us $225 - I'd imagine it would be a similar charge for a plumber. Or should be.
posted by Addlepated at 7:39 PM on April 18, 2009

Like Addlepated, I was going to suggest a pressure regulator for the whole house. This is standard equipment in many areas. Sounds like it should be in yours.
posted by jon1270 at 3:44 AM on April 19, 2009

If you don't want to spend the money on installation of a pressure regulator, you may be able to partially close the valve feeding your hot water tank. This will not reduce pressure when the system is off, but once it starts flowing, system pressure will reduce. Try it by turning on your shower, then have somebody slowly closing the valve, until you're happy. It will probably make a squealing type noise. That's not harmful, though the noise may be unpleasant if is somewhere near somebody is sleeping or something.

Anyway, full house pressure regulator will of course fix you up, assuming pressure is too high.
posted by defcom1 at 4:12 AM on April 19, 2009

Just install a valve before the shower head and throttle it until you are happy.
posted by nuke3ae at 12:12 PM on April 20, 2009