My house has amazing water pressure from the cold tap. It is connected to the mains supply. I live on the second floor. My hot water pressure is not so good. I understand this is because it is a gravity fed system from a tank to the tap so there is no applied pressure.
What I am confused about is where the pressure comes from for the cold?
ETA: I am in the U.K. my hot water system comprises of a tank which is filled via mains water. The tank heats the water over night via an electric heat source. I also have an emersion heater option to heat water up if I use all of the tank in a day. The water is then gravity fed to my taps hence the low water pressure. The tank was fitted in the late 90’s.
My question was: where does the cold pressure come from? not why is my hot water pressure crap.
I couldn’t fathom how without a pump the cold pressure was high despite it having to come UP pipes to my second floor flat and how that remains consistent.
Apologies if I was unclear. 🙂
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But the hot water is fed from the cold water line, right? So it should be about the same preassure in both? Atleast it is so in my house here in Sweden…
The pressure from the cold still comes from gravity, but from the city water tower, which is much taller than your house, so the pressure is greater
Every on grid and partial off-grid (well/septic) residential hot water system, in the USA at least, is fed from the mains water supply or well pump into the hot water heater and then to your faucet.
As such, the hot water at your tap should have the same pressure as the cold water unless there is a defect or purposeful restriction in the hot water lines to that tap. I suggest you contact a plumber to see what the issue is.
Why would the pressaure stop at the heater? It is a continous pipe through the heater to the tap, as I understand it.
It has a tank but as it is connected to a pressurized cold water pipe the tank has the same pressure as the pipe and the outlet of the tank has the same pressure. The pressure has nowhere to go until I open the hot water tap. The pressure doesn’t disappear in the tank.
One fallacy mentioned here is the pressure reducing valve. For these are located in the piping before entering the home. Therefore, controls pressure the same for both not and cold.
One cause of lower hot water pressure is there are more bends in the piping: Such as the inlet pipes going into the water heater; then around inside the heater, and lastly the outlet piping. All which reduces pressure somewhat.
Main factor is…. is that hot water builds up scale inside the hot water pipes, more so than with cold water. This is why with newer homes, the pressure seems same, hot and cold. But over times, scale will reduce volume and pressure with the hot water pipes.
But I have the same pressure in both cold and hot and if i turn off the outlet from the hydrophore, both stop running so there are no other pumps for the hot water. Atleast in a Swedish system, the cold and the hot water have the same base pressure, the same source. But since heat and copperpipes and whatever might be in the water, can react with eachother and stick to the inside of the pipe, it can cause differences in pressure at the tap.
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