Aaahhhh… there is nothing better than having your skin cells blown away by strong water pressure! But how much is too much? And what will excessively strong pressure do to your shower enclosure?
On average, a home of 5 people using 1 shower enclosure, can have 1800+ uses per year based on 1 shower per day. If the shower is used for a 5-minute duration, that shower is getting 9000 minutes use per year. Now to give you an idea, imagine what would happen to your concrete drive if you water blasted it for 9000 minutes. Obviously, you’re not going to point your shower head in one direction for that amount of time, but it does give you an idea of the conditions your shower is put under.
The silicone that keeps your water in your shower is susceptible to damage caused by the pressure of the water. Excessive water pressure can shorten or weaken the silicone joints, looking after the silicone is to the longevity of your shower.
A shower enclosure (the walls and glass surrounds) is designed capture the water coming out of the shower head(s) and divert it to the waste. The design of shower frames and wall connections have flood points, where if more water is coming into them than is going out it will pool or potentially leak to the outside of the enclosure.
If this is happening you can identify what the flood points are, the solutions are:
- Put a flow restrictor into your shower head
- Minimise the amount of time your shower head is pointing in one direction when it’s not on you. Simply turning the shower head to a different direction when starting the shower can help manage.
In reverse weak or dribbly pressure can be frustrating, getting a plumber in to discuss options to increase the pressure is the best option here.