What’s Causing High Water Pressure and What to Do About It

Why is my water pressure so high? This is a more common question than most might believe, and the reasons for it are often so obvious they are hard to believe.

Water pressure can cause a wide variety of problems, all of which will eventually lead to highly expensive and inconvenient replacements, repairs, and even catastrophic failures. The most obvious and common result of unchecked high water pressure is stress on pipes, which can lead to leaks or failures. A less well-understood result of pressure issues is damage to appliances like washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerators with icemakers.

If your home or business is having water pressure problems, how do you and your Fontana plumber diagnose them, and what can be done to fix them?

Symptoms of Water Pressure Problems

Sounds From Inside the Walls

If you turn on the water in your shower, do you hear a banging sound from somewhere in the walls? When high pressure is released, the water in your pipes can experience something called “cavitation.” This is when a fluid in an enclosed space becomes turbulent.

Since water is a relatively heavy substance at eight pounds per gallon, you can easily move several hundred pounds of material through your pipes in just a few minutes. If your shower head lurches or you hear a banging sound, that’s one way to know you might have a pressure problem.

Spitting

Another common problem is “spitting,” when the water in your faucet explodes out of the tap before slowing to a standard flow. Sometimes this can be caused by air bubbles that form inside the pipes, but more often it is because there is far too much back-pressure in the pipe caused by the concentration of unnecessary water pressure at the tap.  

What Causes Water Pressure Problems?

Gravity

You’re probably not going to believe this, but one of the most common causes of high water pressure is a simple one. It’s gravity. If your municipal water system is required to navigate divergent altitudes, which is to say it’s hilly in your neighborhood, it is possible that water arrives at your house as much because of gravity as it does central pump pressure. The two forces operating simultaneously can have a powerful effect.

Remember the point about water weighing eight pounds per gallon. A 100-gallon aquarium once filled weighs nearly half a ton. The average household can easily use 100 gallons of water in a day.

Local Water Department

Another common cause is your local water department. If you live in an area with a lot of high-rise buildings or municipal fire hydrants, plumbing services could reveal your local water utility might have the pressure set higher than normal. That’s fine if you are on the 20th floor, but if you live in a residential neighborhood on the first floor, it can be a little too much for your plumbing system.

Temperature

Water expands when heated and contracts when cooled. Nearly every residence and business have a big giant appliance connected to the plumbing system called a water heater. See if you can guess what that big thing does?  

What to Do About High Water Pressure

If the water pressure is an issue in your home or business, you need a qualified plumber to diagnose and fix the problem.