I have low water pressure

Reasons why your water pressure may be lower than usual:

• In your home only - you could have an internal plumbing issue inside your home.
• Real-time demand - Pressure often drops during busy times and rises at night.
• Pressure management work - it may be due to work we’re doing to manage flows across our network to make our supplies more reliable. 
• Burst pipes or unplanned works - if there’s little or no water, it might be a burst pipe.
• Planned work - we’ll let you know in advance if planned work affects your supply. If you have extra needs, like home dialysis, join our Priority Services Register so we can support you with bottled water if needed.

As well as your internal stop tap, you should also check if any other taps that control flow to your hot water system or other devices are turned on. If you have a thermostatic shower, you should also check if the thermostat needs adjusting.

This can be down to a few factors. Your water pressure can depend on the local geography, whereabouts your home is in relation to our service reservoir or water tower, and how much higher (in terms of ground level) either of these is in relation to your home. Did you know, for instance, that homes at the top of a hill will receive water at a lower pressure than those at the bottom?

We manage water pressure to meet our guaranteed service standards, so you can expect a reliable water supply and the level of service you deserve. 

During a stop tap test there may be a brief surge where water bursts out of your tap as the airlock clears. After this, it should return to normal.

If your taps continue to splutter or vibrate, or your water flow is irregular, it could be trapped air.  Try turning on all your taps for a minute—this creates a strong flow that helps push air bubbles out of your pipes.

How to clear trapped air:

1. Check your internal stop tap to make sure that the water in your house is turned on.
2. Move through your house and turn on every hot and cold water tap, beginning with the tap closest to your stop tap and work your way to the furthest tap.
3. Flush all toilets and run the water in all appliances or fixtures that use a water connection (for example, fill a cup with water from the refrigerator dispenser and run the dishwasher and washing machine through a rinse cycle).
4. Run everything for a few minutes or until your water flows normally at every tap, without any spluttering or banging.
5. Go back to the last tap you opened, farthest away from your stop tap, and turn off the water.
6. At each toilet, turn off the tap that is closest to your stop tap first, then flush the toilet and wait about two minutes before closing the next taps.
7. Carry on turning off taps, working your way back to the first taps you opened until you’ve turned the water off at all taps and fixtures as this should get rid of the air pockets.
8. Contact an approved plumber to inspect your pipes if clearing the air from the lines doesn’t stop the problem (you may be dealing with water hammer or improperly sized pipes).

Loud thumps or bumps or prolonged noises and vibrations are usually caused by air in your pipes. If noise or sputtering happens when you close a stop tap or an appliance such as a dishwasher or washing machine switches cycles, it's more likely to be a pressure surge than air in the pipes.