What is your shower water pressure?  Why is this important?

The supply pressure to a showerhead is the major factor that determines the shower flow rate, and therefore the water and power consumption.

If you have a low household water pressure, then your shower flow rate may already be quite low.  Most water-saving showerheads are designed to operate with medium to high supply pressure and if used at low pressure their performance may be affected.

How do you estimate the pressure?

• Remove your shower rose – if unsure how to do this then please follow the instructions available here ('How to install your new showerhead')

• Turn on the hot and cold taps to set the water temperature to what you would regard as a comfortably hot shower setting.

• Then place your thumb firmly over the shower arm outlet.  Are you able to block the water flow? You may wish to do this test using one stronger and one less strong adult member of the household.

Use the following table to give an approximation of your current shower pressure.

As you can see, it is not difficult to estimate your water pressure.

As long as you have a pressure of at least 2 bar, preferably  3, then an Eskom tested water-efficient showerhead such as Oxygenics^® is for you.

It is also worth doing this same test with your thumb over the shower arm outlet, and turning on the hot and cold separately, one after the other (either/or) and if there is a significant difference in pressure on the two sides, then your hot and cold pressure is not the same. 

Another easy way to check this is if you have to

This may indicate an imbalance in supply pressure, and could mean, for various technical reasons, that you should not install any brand of water-efficient showerhead