High water pressure all of a sudden??

[metalangel]

I've lived in my house almost four years now so I know something's different.

-The water coming into the house seems to be at a higher pressure than it ever was before.
-The toilet tank refills with a loud BLAST of water that fills it twice as fast as before.
-The washing machine is louder whenever it lets mains water in.
-Taps are noticably more forceful when you turn them on.
-The power shower (draws water from the mains and runs through its own heating system) also is putting out more pressure (yay!) but again you can hear a lot more water going into it and faster too.

Is this anything to be concerned about? Or should I just STFU and be glad to have mightier water?

[Specialone]

You do get fluctuations, but too bigger increase can blow seals on tap connectors, knacker up electric showers etc etc.
Just be vigilant.

I was working on a house yesterday (not plumbing) and the woman told me they have 7 bar of pressure feeding their house :eek:.
Normal for my neck of the woods is 2-3 bar, i've had to put a pressure reg in before as they had a wall mounted hot water heater that stated 5 bar max pressure and they had more than that.

[metalangel]

Spoke to Dwr Cymru who said I should have a stopcock in the house that I can adjust to control this. Told her that I might well do but I haven't a clue where it is and that any time anything has been done with our water (installing boilers, f'instance) the plumbers have gone outside to the one in the street with a long pole thing to turn it off there.

Was told I should have one in the house too, and if not, to get one fitted... but for now they'll arrange for someone to come and look as nobody else in the street has complained. In the meanwhile Mrs Metal is going to have a root around to see what she can find.

I'm just really frustrated as I spend my entire life sat behind this ferkin' desk and thus whenever something goes wrong there's little I can do as I have to be back in work again and so can't try and have a proper look myself.

[Bluefish]

You may need a pressure reducing valve fitting, as said over 3 bar can blow seals.

[metalangel]

Mrs Metal thinks she's found a stopcock under the sink which I will try adjusting when I get home.

[arenalife]

You may need a pressure reducing valve fitting, as said over 3 bar can blow seals.

Reminds of the dirty joke where a Welshman is helping an Eskimo who has broken down at the side of the road, the mechanic says "I think you've blown a seal" so the Eskimo says "SO WHAT!! you **** sheep!!"

Anyway, try looking under the sink for the stopcock, sometimes it's down so low, it's below the level of the kitchen cabinet floor so you have to root around with the spiders. Sometimes it's in the downstairs toilet.

[embee]

The stopcock isn't really the way to deal with it, with no flow the full pressure will still be there.

I had the ball valve in my khasi burst due to the pressure. I picked up a Honeywell pressure reducing valve off fleabay for £15 and fitted it immediately after the incoming stopcock, everything is much more civilised now. Very simple to install.

Severn Trent seem to wind the pressure up here at 8am, the cisterns start dripping.

[Specialone]

Screwfix sell them for £20

[Nobbylad]

The stopcock should reduce the flow of water into the house plumbing as it effectively reduces the gauge of the incoming water so that you will have the same pressure, but less volume. It's just the same as a tap.

IMO

[beabert]

yeah, just close the stopcock a little i keep mine closed a bit, infact are you sure no ones opened it recently, hense the increase.

[Specialone]

There is a difference between flow and pressure, turning the stopcock down wont reduce the pressure that much unless you turn almost off which is a sticky plaster fix.
To effectively change the pressure correctly it has to be with a PRV (pressure reducing valve).

In compressed air applications, you use a flow regulator to slow down the speed of the air but maintain full pressure, if you wanna reduce pressure it has to be with a pressure reducing regulator / valve.

[metalangel]

Right, can't find the blasted thing. What she found were those electrical safety clips attached to the pipes.

The pipes go down behind the level of the cabinets and seem to disappear behind the wall (I look down and found two perfectly good sponges and dustcloths which I don't really want to try and retrieve lest I get spidered) so maybe it's outside on the side behind all the vegetation and flowerpots I've never bothered examining closely (the lawn is my priority, the previous owners seemingly had never cut it so I am nursing it back to health)

HOWEVER it doesn't seem as pressurey today... the sinks and shower both don't seem to have the same blast of water trying to get in. Also, a letter from Dwr Cymru informed us that we're switch our water source from one reservoir to another which *might* explain something. Odd the woman on the phone didn't mention it.