What should my water pressure be?

Pressure and flow are different things and get muddled constantly. Pressure is the push — measured in bar. Flow is how much actually comes out — measured in litres per minute. You can have decent pressure and poor flow if the pipe feeding the tap is narrow or partly corroded, and a combi boiler in particular needs both to give you a decent shower.

Too much pressure is its own problem. It makes water hammer worse, it stresses joints, seals and flexible hoses, and it wastes water. Where the incoming main is unusually strong, a pressure-reducing valve brings it down to something sensible and everything downstream lasts longer.

Here's the Macclesfield-specific part. United Utilities say plainly that pressure across their region varies with elevation, and this is a town built on a slope with hills behind it. The bottom of the town and the flatter estates are not the same hydraulic proposition as a cottage up on Kerridge or out towards Macclesfield Forest. If you live high, you are more exposed to the low end of the range — and United Utilities' own guidance notes that while most fittings will work from around half a bar, plenty of appliances perform poorly below about 1.5 bar. That is precisely the band a lot of disappointing showers on high ground sit in.

So if you're planning a new shower, a combi or an unvented cylinder, get the pressure and the flow measured before you buy anything rather than after. A plumber can put a gauge on it in a couple of minutes, and those two numbers decide what will actually work in your house. Choosing the appliance first and measuring second is how people end up with an expensive shower that dribbles.