Solutions for boosting home water pressure? I want to be rinsed like an elephant at the zoo.

Solutions for boosting home water pressure? I want to be rinsed like an elephant at the zoo.

I've been through like 8 shower heads. Removing flow restrictor doesn't seem to make a difference. I have a gauge to measure my water pressure in the mail. I checked where my water comes in from the street and didn't find any pressure regulator to adjust, just the meter.

I'm seeing a lot of different suggestions and products. Grundfos SCALA2, Little Giant Inline 400, Amtrol pressure tanks, shallow well jet pumps, and various other gadgets. None of them really seem to be or do the same thing so I'm like wtf do I actually need?

Willing to spend up to around a grand, maybe 2, plus ongoing electric cost to get significantly improved water pressure. Mine's not awful or unusable it's just on the low end of what I'd consider acceptable. Also potentially relevant info - I'm on a standard-efficiency oil boiler system with an Amtrol Boilermate hot water tank, mixed copper and pex pipes, have very soft water, and it's through a utility company not a well.

Anyone actually had success with any of these products?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Try a pressure washer like a karcher or gerni that heats the water

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Your ruse to pressure wash OP's nuts to oblivion would brilliantly work
      If he had any that is

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    You need a really old shower head. We found one packed away in a cupboard from the late 70's and put it on because the shower broke and that's all we had. It was like a literal waterfall, the water streams were so thick and heavy from the sheer volume, it was super luxurious.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I want more like needles of water stripping my skin off. Something that will blast away soap and shampoo. I got pic related and it's alright, better than any handheld, but it's still not good enough, I'm convinced now the solution is boosting the whole system pressure not just fiddling with the shower.

      • 2 years ago
        Sage

        >drill an eighth inch hole in a penny
        >weld it to the shower spout
        Problem solved

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >the solution is boosting the whole system pressure

        are you on a well or do you have city water?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          City water

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Different anon, but I'm on a well with the exact same issue. I imagine I need a stronger pump?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >the water streams were so thick and heavy from the sheer volume
      Lol

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Have you tried drilling out the holes to make them bigger?

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Crazy thought... what if you got a good adjustable garden sprayer and hooked it up to your shower? They seem to get plenty of power when you set the nozzle just right

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      That's more because garden hose is 3/4" and shower pipe is 1/2"

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >my water pressure sucks
    >it's not my water pressure though but I don't know since the gauge is still in the mail
    What's the point of this moronic thread then? Why didn't you wait until you KNEW what your home's water pressure was before haphazardly trying to find random solutions you hope will work?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      This right here. Step 1 is measuring the water pressure where it comes in.
      Years ago I bought my first house, water pressure was shit, figured it was because the whole house was plumbed in 1/2" galvanized piping. I spent a shitload of time and money replumbing everything to 1" pipe. Didn't help the water pressure in the slightest. Turns out the plumbing from the street to the house was shit and I wasn't about to spent 5 figures digging up my yard. Had I done a pressure test to begin with I would have saved a lot of trouble.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >wasn't about to spent 5 figures digging up my yard.
        why would it cost that much to trench a water line?
        you're probably not coming back to this thread but I need this answered. an excavation company quoted me 8-15k. I'm just going to dig a trench. why would it be this crazy expensive? what am I missing??

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Because most people are npcs and are entirely useless so they either pay or they're fricked. How deep do you need to go? Just rent a trencher or worst case a mini-excavator/backhoe for a couple hundred dollars and knock it out. It's not difficult.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            6 and a half feet. the excavator might have trouble getting in there but I can rent a 4 foot trencher no problem-o.
            if I dig down a couple feet and then trencher it?
            or just trench back and forth like a mad man?

            even hiring a chain gang of shovelers I cant see how a ditch could cost 6-15 thousand dollars.

            thanks for the vote of confidence though. I'll give'er a shot

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              might be an issue with OSHA requires trench shoring at that depth? it's a one inch pipe and then a 4 inch sewer line. do I really need to pull out a football field of dirt

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Because I'm inpatient and start looking now lol.. I'm not buying anything other than the gauge yet but looking for the possible solutions.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I would guess that basically you need a booster pump.

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Gauge came today, a day early.
    Results were 100psi at my garden hose which is quite good, and about 48psi at my shower head which is pretty poor... I tested it after running the hot water for a bit but got about the same result with cold water. The adapter I used for the shower leaked a little bit but only like 2 droplets a second.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Try running the garden hose into the shower

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Garden hose to water heater to the shower

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >100psi at my garden hose

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >and about 48psi at my shower head which is pretty poor.
      While running the shower, correct?
      A 50 psi pressure drop due to the flow of one shower is bad. You might have a blockage somewhere. What kind of shower valve to you have?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      You’re asking for trouble with pressure over 70psi. That being said, most modern shower heads have a restrictor installed. Unscrew the head and if you see a white, black or blue screen looking thing, remove it. If it’s not that, it’s probably the shower cartridge or valves. Replace them.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        I tested it at the hose bibb in my basement where the water comes in (interestingly located just before the meter... I could steal water?) And it read exactly 50psi like right on the dot. I re-tested the hose and it said 70psi, idk why it's higher but I'm trusting the 50.

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    step one: find water meter
    step two: install a 220v wall outlet just past that
    step three: run proper switchleg from outlet to bathroom switch to anable outlet to be switched power
    step four: install a reserve tank and high speed pump inline with main water supply
    step five: hit switch engaging pump then turn on shower
    step six: avoid poachers and moron big game hunters in your elephant spray shower
    step seven: get out and turn off pump switch
    rinse
    repeat

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I'm thinking an on-demand system for the main inlet would be sufficient. I'm reading a lot about the scala2 and it seems to be what I'm after. The hard part will be finding someone to install it.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Heads up on the Scala2. I heard early series had leaking issues about half a year in or so.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      This is almost correct
      You'll definitely need a reserve tank, but you're also going to need a booster pump and a well pressure tank.
      Essentially you are going to be treating your city water inlet as a well, and managing the pressure yourself.
      The tank is necessary because you cant just boost the water straight from mains or that pump is going to be turning on and off everytime you use it and will provide inconsistent pressure.
      As long as you have space though shouldn't cost more than 1-2k usd.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        To elaborate a little more
        > mains fills up reserve tank with a float valve to keep it topped off (the 275 gallon totes are pretty cheap).
        > Booster pump has a check valve set for your desired PSI (60 psi is standard in US, any higher youre risking damage to your pipes, but might be worth it if you really wanna go elephant mode)
        > Well pressure tank fills up until it reaches the desired pressure, and acts like a capacitor to smooth out the flow to the rest of your house.
        > When you turn the shower on, pressure tank will slowly drop and re-engage the booster pump if it gets below a certain PSI threshold.

        I've done this for my RO system because I got pissed off waiting forever to fill up a glass of water, it works great

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Sensible and easy.

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Decrease the ambient pressure in your entire house

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Run it without a shower head, just the pipe

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Maybe changing the geometry of the shower head? Make a custom one with really small holes, possibly redude the diameter of the shower head pipe, ect. You can trade flow for extra pressure.

    You could also add a boost pump or something to your existing shower head.
    Study some Bernulli.

    Archimedes thought long and hard but could not find a method for proving that the crown was not solid gold. Soon after, he filled a bathtub and noticed that water spilled over the edge as he got in and he realized that the water displaced by his body was equal to the weight of his body.

    OP you can also become a bathroom scientist, make your contribution to science.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I believe that was the volume and not the weight.

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Need wider pipes inside your house, you get massive pressure drop from half inch pipes

  13. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >OP jacks up his water pressure like a sperg
    >toilets now run non-stop because fill valves can't close against the incoming water pressure
    >water heater relief valve begins spewing constantly
    >entire water heater fails and begins leaking water everywhere
    >faucets eject water fast enough to strip paint from wood
    >but hey at least OP is comfy in his shower

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Everything should be rated to handle well more than 80PSI which is the max typical residential water pressure.

  14. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Just clean yourself with a pressure washer
    High pressure showers are wasteful anyway

  15. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Guys it's OP. I have solved my problem with a chinese shower head. My mother was shilling it to me because she has one but I didn't want to buy Chinese brands and kept trying American/European brands (even if made in China). Well she brought it over a few days ago and I tried it and it was actually the best, better than Speakman Anystream, better than Grohe, Delta, EZ-FLO, Waxman, and at least 15 others that I tried. I ordered one while still wet from the shower.

    If you hold it gently you can feel it trying to escape your hand, propulsed by its own jet streams. It cuts like a knife into my clogged pores, takes like 3 seconds to rinse all the shampoo.

    The runner up is the BrassCraft Mixet model SWD0419which provides a very full drenching flow in a fairly narrow stream (good if you have a shower in a bathtub not a large stall) - while it doesn't shoot with the same amount of force as the chinese one, it does move a ton of water without aerating it or pulsing. I think I'll put that one on as the fixed shower head and use this cool pop-up diverter to switch at will.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      well hook us up with an ali link

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        I didn't find it there but I got it on Amazon.
        https://www.amazon.com/YOO-MEE-Pressure-Powerful-Handheld-Low-Reach/dp/B07H916F88

        They have a version that's just the hand shower but I got the set because it's only a few dollars more and came with a brass diverter which is nicer than my plastic one and I wanted to see if the fixed head was any better than the handheld (feels exactly much the same to me). Also the chrome version of the handheld is sold under a different brand name, idk if it's just a branding thing or they made other changes but the one my mother let me try said YOO.MEE so I wanted the exact same thing and it is the same, except hers had no flow restrictor installed and I know she didn't remove it, I took it out of the one I got before installing it. I'll try with it in sometime too, it might not make a difference at my water pressure anyway.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      You have to go for chink mystery products in cases like this because ALL of the legit companies *WILL* be complying with the EPA's gay low-flow mandates. China doesn't give a frick. When you need a product to do something that's illegal that's when you have to stop being a boomer 'muh buy american' and ask Mr. Chang for the good stuff. Tried to tell you.

  16. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The flow restrictor is sold separately too so you can see exactly what it looks like. If you get one to try and want to pull it out with no damage so it's returnable, use small needlenose pliers or even tweezers to grab one of the crosshairs and wiggle it while pulling gently. It's press-fit in at the end that screws on to the water source. These are harder to remove when wet because the water can create a vacuum around it.

  17. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >I want to be rinsed like an elephant at the zoo.
    Do Americans really?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Which country's people don't enjoy a powerful cleaning? Other than the smelly French obviously.

  18. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    https://www.amazon.com/KOLERFLO-Pressure-Booster-Automatic-H15GR-15/dp/B07J43CWC3

    88.99 WITH COUPON KID

  19. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    frick around with the regulator on your main water line

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      There isn't one 🙁
      just the meter and a spigot then it branches off to several different pipes.

  20. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    tank with float to mains. electric pump from tank to house. blow your fricking showerhead off the wall m8

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