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How to Test Your Water Pressure in About a Minute

Everything else on this site is easier once you have a number. A gauge that screws onto an outside tap is the simplest diagnostic in plumbing.

Outside tap mounted on a house wall, the fixture closest to the incoming supply

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Buy a water pressure gauge with a standard hose thread. Screw it onto an outside tap, or onto the laundry tap if there is no outside one. Close every fixture in the house. Open the tap fully and read the dial.

Reading the number

Reading	What it means
Below 40 psi	Genuinely low. Worth diagnosing.
45–80 psi	Normal range for residential supply.
Above 80 psi	Too high. It damages fixtures and appliances over time, and a pressure-reducing valve is the usual remedy.

Normal and low ranges as published by Grundfos in its homeowner guide to low water pressure. The 80 psi ceiling is echoed by water utilities, which advise supply be kept no higher than that. Life expectancy and responsibility as published by the Elizabethton, Tennessee water utility.

The second test, which is the useful one

A static reading with everything closed only tells you half the story. Leave the gauge on, then have someone open two indoor taps. If the reading holds, your supply is fine and any complaint is about flow at a specific fixture. If it collapses, the restriction is upstream — a valve, the pipe, or the supply into the property.

Pressure gauge on metal pipework, its dial marked in both psi and bar

Write both numbers down. If you do end up calling someone, those two readings are the most useful thing you can hand them, and they shorten the visit.