How do I increase pressure here?

[Alex Moss]

Hi there,

This is my first time posting and hope I'm posting in the correct category.

I have an apartment in Italy and control my water supply through a stop tap in the building. Next to it is what seems to be a pressure gauge. I have attached 2 photos to illustrate.

My shower pressure isn't strong at all and was wondering how I can improve the pressure to the shower. Is this something I can do myself? I have a combi boiler elsewhere to which the pressure gauge is at 1 and a bit.

Hope this is all the information you need. Thanks!

 

[SilentMike]

What type of shower do you have? The pressure shown on the combi is your heating

 

[townfanjon]

Alex , assuming the gauge is correct 6 bar of pressure is way above average, I am guessing its more flow you need , it usually is, the valve on the pic may have a filter on it that wants checking , but you flow is determined by the size of the pipe that supplys your property, only thing you can do is check the stop tap is fully open .

 

[Unregistered]

Thanks for this. The boiler (downstairs) powers the heating as well as the shower itself. The tap on the right in the first picture actually leaked only with a drip every 5 seconds until someone tightened it for me. Since then the amount of water coming out of the shower has decreased.

 

[Robert Tyrrell]

Sounds to me like the person who did the tightening doesn't realise that if they tighten the packing gland nut it will cause the valve to tighten as well. Make sure that the valve is fully open and check your flow rate by putting a 1 litre container under the shower hose (remove spray head) and timing how long it takes to fill. From this you can work out how many litres per sec/minute you are getting as a flow rate. Alter the valve and check again. This will determine if it's a problem with the valve of not

 

[REDSAW]

eye, think she gonna blow capt!

what type shower is it?

 

[Alex Moss]

Not sure what type of shower it is sorry, just that the water is heated from the boiler beneath the room. If I loosen the pipe where he tightened it will this solve my problem? However, I'm at risk of it dripping again.

 

[Robert Tyrrell]

This might not solve your problem but it's worth a try:
Loosen the gland nut and back the valve wheel head off all the way. If this enables the shower to work you've found your fault and it's just a matter of stopping the dripping, which can be done by loosening the gland nut and then re-packing the gland, either that or replace the valve centre.