What counts as the right water pressure covers a wide range. If the water pressure is right, you’ll know it—it just feels “right.” You can shower in it easily, clean up the dishes without problem, and fill up a water bottle quickly without making it overflow.
If you want some actual numbers, the water pressure in a house should be between 40 to 45 psi. Once it moves past 60 psi, it’s too high. Under 25 psi and it’s too low.
You don’t want the pressure to swing too much in either direction—both are problems. You may want to shrug them off and hope that the problem will just fix itself. Sometimes it does, if the source of the problem is a temporary issue at the municipal supply. But if the pressure difference persists, you may have a serious problem in the plumbing that’s causing damage and will lead to bigger trouble.
Many of us who work at Sweetwater have been in the plumbing industry for decades, so we can tell you a bit about the “bad old days” of plumbing technology. When handling repairs for leaks or trying to diagnose drain and sewer clogging issues, a lot of guesswork was required. It was informed guesswork (at least if you had a trained and licensed plumber), but there was still no way a plumber could get a look inside the plumbing to make an actual visual inspection that could remove the need for guessing.