Posted on 03/04/2025 5:42:08 AM PST by Jonty30
On the morning of March 10, I intend to take a shower, turn my face up to the spray and burble, “Thank God for the Guardian!” Not because I admire the left-wing politics of the British newspaper, where they seem to long for the days when the Brits’ income tax rate topped 90 percent and Nigel Farage hadn’t been born. No, March 10 will mark precisely one year since the Great Shower Debate ended.
Or at least it ended for me when the Guardian published an article with the immortal headline “High shower pressure can help people save water, study suggests.” Intrepid researchers at the University of Surrey had placed sensors in 290 showers around campus, recording data for 39 weeks from 86,421 individual shower sessions. “Water consumption,” the study found, sensationally, “was reduced by up to 56% with high water pressure.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I suspect that water pressure is a better agent to reduce use of water than anything low flow.
Except pressure and flow are two completely different principles.
I can only base my conclusion, based on toilets. But it seems that using high pressure is more cleansing/flow than trying to trickly out water and scrubbing.
Shower heads have removable flow restrictors.
Remove them and enjoy!
The funniest story I heard about flow restricted showerheads was a urologist who used his practice instruments to open up his showerhead like a misbehaving prostate.
I discussed this with the plumber when we did a bathroom remodel last fall. He assured me that the flow restrictors are no longer accessible.
If they won’t come out, use a drill.
I removed one in one of the showers, and it really works great.
Cordless drills are good.
very first thing I have done for 35 years with a new shower head... take out the screen orifice before screwing on the shower head. I pay for the water,., so i’m gonna get the water!!
As it should be.
Thanks, but your snippet fails to provide any useful info, and very few FReepers will pay the Post to see more.
I was required to source the story from it’s origin and not use other sources that sourced the Washington post, as per FreeRepublic rules.
But at the risk of having my post pulled, here is pressreaders’s copy.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-washington-post-597/20250228/281809994642998
Yes, I agree. But you have to look at the whole picture. It depends on the fixture type and where the source of higher pressure is coming from, the general supply pressure, or the restriction caused by the fixture that increases pressure. In the general perspective of a whole household supply pressure is where to actually start.
Example, Yes smaller ports in a shower head or a toilet designed to utilize higher pressure will save volume. But with fixtures like sink faucets and water hoses that have no restriction a higher supply pressure will use much much more volume in one minutes use time at 85 psi than it would at 35 psi.
So I guess I am saying that if one wants to truly save water to a household as a whole, regulating the general supply pressure first is the best way to do it. If not, then whatever you save at those particular fixtures is completely negated by the other unrestricted flow fixtures in the home or facility.
A combination of both overall supply pressure reduction and an increase of fixture pressure is the most advantageous set up for a household or facility. Many here in the desert southwest install supply pressure regulators because water is so scarce and expensive. Doing this can cut the overall water bill by 30%. But what it will not do is make a gallon of water any smaller. If you require a gallon you are going to use a gallon. But it greatly reduces any wasted gallons from the unrestricted fixtures. :)
Thank you clarifying that .
I completely agree with you. Start with the water pressure and work through everything else until you get to the faucet or toilet. Probably most easily done if you are building a house from the ground up.
With any luck some of that crap will disappear.
for the original Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/10/high-shower-pressure-can-help-people-save-water-study-suggests
I just did this! My apartment has great water pressure but my new shower head didn’t perform as I expected. I removed the little blue restrictor gasket and now I have insane pressure. I told my gf “we can thank libtards for this.”
These restricted water flow devices were the brainchild of NYC politicians. NYC was faced with a water shortage. NYC needed to spend money to deal with the shortage which would have resulted in incresed water bills. The politicians justified the flow restrictors as saving money particularly for low income residents.
BTW, I’ve yet to see a shower head flow restrictor that can’t be removed. Some plumbers will tell you that these can’t be removed citing federal law. Others will just go ahead and remove them.
Why again do we want to reduce water usage? Unless there’s a shortage in the supply, which in most of the US there isn’t, why can’t we use as much as we want like any other commodity we pay for?
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