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Water Pressure Problems

Started by hcordine1998, March 03, 2019, 07:14:55 PM

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hcordine1998

I am renting a room in a house with a live-in landlady. Recently, the water pressure in my ensuite electric shower has been extremely low.

I have repeatedly asked my landlady to look into the issue, but she insists that it's a Thames Water problem. However, none of the other water outlets in the house are affected, there are no reported issues in our area and it has been like this for three weeks now. What is the best way to get this fixed? Should I keep asking her? Or ring a plumber or Thames Water myself?

I don't have much experience renting and haven't encountered an issue like this before. The landlady has otherwise been quite good about fixing things, if slow with non-urgent problems. My room is opposite hers so I'd like to maintain a good relationship.

Hippogriff

Even if it is a Thames Water problem, which some doubt is cast on by your empirical evidence, it does remain the Landlord's problem to resolve. That's if there is, indeed, a problem.

However, have you done testing with the shower itself? Turn the temperature asked for down and see if water flow improves. The electric shower heats water up as it goes through it and if the mains supply is notably colder (which could happen in winter, right?) then the shower has a harder time heating the water that passes through it... obviously if you're not then asking for the higher temperature, the flow might increase... easy to test. Alternatively... in the last three weeks... have you turned up the temperature, thereby affecting it?

You don't really have the right to call in a professional yourself in this kind of situation, I'd say... so do everything through your Landlord. There shouldn't be a need to upset anyone if the issue is real.

hcordine1998

Hi Hippogriff, thanks for your reply and advice.

In answer to your question, the water pressure is equally low whether the temperature is hot or cold. In the past the pressure has been reasonably good, even at high temperatures.

Hippogriff

My apologies, but I cannot trust what you're saying 100% because you keep talking about pressure, when it's flow you need to be talking about... have you measured this or is it perception? It's not meant to offend you, but a lot of things come from the mind... and only measurements really help. The mains may change, that is true... but it's unlikely that a change would happen to one 'outlet', your electric shower being one. So you need to get a litres per second figure and compare... use a measuring jug and your ability to count.

First off, compare the kitchen tap to your shower head... is there a massive difference in the amount of time it takes to fill the same jug of known capacity? There could be, maybe should be... but is it dramatic? Remember, if you find out something suspicious it could mean that the connection just to the shower has a problem somewhere... small leak... and the Landlord should not be playing with water, it can destroy things if it's leaking away inside walls... because you are convinced it's only recently happened (and you are convinced it is not the fact that it's an effect of colder weather) then it's not that the pipe diameter has changed... there could be a leak, or the shower could be reducing flow because it's failing to heat the water (but that's why I asked you to test the difference between the shower delivering cold and hot water - I'd still be interested if there's a notable difference there).

However... I'm neither Plumber or Electrician. I just know some of the downsides of electric showers...