Low water pressure: The most important facts about water pressure systems in the kitchen.
Understand the impact of your water pressure on your kitchen mixer tap
High Pressure tap Carena S Vario
A definition of water pressure in the UK
The first thing you need to know when choosing your kitchen taps is the pressure of your hot water system. There are three basic units for measuring water pressure
- psi and
- metres of head
1 bar = 10 metres head = 14.5 psi.
Without getting too technical, this means that if the vertical distance the hot water has to travel is 5m, it would be roughly 0.5 bar maximum pressure.
Once you find the tap you like please check the specific details to understand whether it is a low pressure tap or high pressure tap. BLANCO consider taps with a 0.3 bar pressure requirement as suitable for a low pressure system.
The impact of the wrong tap with low water pressure systems
If you install a tap that requires a high pressure system and your system is low pressure you will have an extremely weak flow of hot water, sometimes the flow is too weak to enable the tap to supply water.
If you have a low pressure water system, low pressure kitchen taps designed to operate at this pressure will ensure you get a steady flow of water. The temperature is also easily controlled reaching the high or low temperature you require.
Alternatively if you have a high pressure water system you will be able to choose from our full tap range and will still enable a steady flow of water.
Download our guide to Water pressure
Indicators of low water pressure or high water pressure systems
The two main types of hot water system are pressurised and non-pressurised, so you need to find out which system is fitted in your home.
High Pressure Water System
Pressurised water systems are usually modern combi heaters or gas water heaters that give you a continuous flow of hot water.
If you have this system you are likely to have a boiler unit but no hot water cylinder.
The boiler is usually found in the kitchen giving hot water on demand.
If this is your system you should be able to choose from both the high or low pressure kitchen taps in our range.
High Pressure Pumped Water System
The other version of a high pressured system is a pumped system. This consists of a hot water cylinder with an expansion vessel on top often called a Megaflo. These are usually found in the airing cupboard and with this system you would usually not have a cold water tank. With this high pressure system you can also choose from any of our high pressure kitchen taps or low pressure kitchen taps.
Gravity Fed System
Non-pressurised systems or otherwise known as Gravity fed systems normally have a cold water tank in the attic and the hot water tank in the airing cupboard. If your system looks like this then you should choose taps that state suitable for kitchen taps that can work with low pressure systems.
BLANCO offer a comprehensive range of kitchen taps , both high and low pressure, once your retailer or plumber has confirmed which system you have you can search through our full kitchen tap range and see within the description of each tap model whether it is suitable for high or low pressure systems.
Our mixer taps employ ceramic disc valve technology to ensure a controlled flow of water at full pressure in a single, smooth, quarter-turn of the lever. And if your home has a traditional gravity-fed unbalanced supply, we can also offer low pressure kitchen taps that combine ceramic disc control technology with built-in features designed to provide the maximum flow rate from your system.
Types of tap
Once you understand which system you have, BLANCO have a whole host of taps to suit your requirements, and a wide range of kitchen sinks to complement your choice of tap. Our kitchen tap range includes monobloc taps, single lever taps, pull out / spring lever taps and feature taps - we can help you choose which tap suits you .