TIL the average shower head uses 2.5 gallons per minute and I did the math on mine

Ngl I was looking up why my water bill jumped $40 last month and stumbled onto this fact on some plumbing forum. My old shower head is from like 2004 and it's definitely not one of those low-flow ones. Did the rough math and realized me and my wife are probably running through 60+ gallons every morning between our two showers. That's basically a whole bathtub worth of water just to get clean before work. I swapped in a cheap $15 low-flow head from Home Depot and I swear the pressure feels the same but my bill dropped $22 the very next month. Has anyone else tested their actual flow rate with a bucket and a stopwatch? I feel dumb for not doing this sooner.

3 comments

3 Comments

linda_dixon491mo ago

Yep, bucket tested mine at 3.2 GPM and swapped it out same day.

olivia_moore1mo ago

Hmm, I gotta disagree a little. 3.2 GPM is right on the edge, and swapping it out same day seems like a lot of work for not much gain. A lot of fixtures are already flow restricted to 2.5 or even 2.0 GPM these days, so the well pump's output doesn't always matter as much as people think. I'd rather spend the time troubleshooting the pressure tank or the pressure switch first, those are usually the real culprits for low flow. Most folks would be better off with a simple pressure adjustment before dropping cash on a whole new pump.

elizabethmason1mo ago

Yeah, 3.2 GPM is borderline for sure... swapping it out same day shows you weren't messing around with that low pressure.