Recent statistics from the UK’s leading shower and domestic pump manufacturer, Salamander Pumps has revealed that Birmingham’s low water pressure is the source of more than just mild frustration, with the common problem resulting in a whopping 61 arguments per household each year!

Topping the UK leader board, a massive 45% of Birmingham residents say that poor water pressure – resulting in poor trickly showers and slow filing cisterns and baths; has a real impact on their daily lives. Furthermore, half of those questioned would even go as far as to say that their lacklustre water pressure has a negative impact on their mental state.

When questioned about how they feel when they emerge from their ‘low pressure’ trickle of a shower, almost a quarter admitted they become ‘frustrated’ (23%), a fifth are ‘annoyed’ and 11% even declared they felt ‘unclean.’

Even routine daily tasks are affected – with almost a quarter (23%) of people opting out of washing their car, 16% not bothering to water their garden and 13% avoiding having their shower or bath!

It doesn’t stop there – more than one in four of Birmingham residents have actually been late to work as a result of their less-than-enthusiastic water stream – not only setting us up for the day in a bad mood, but also getting us in trouble in the workplace.

Gareth Richards, technical director at Salamander Pumps comments: “Although living with terrible water pressure can be truly unbearable at times, there are actually solutions available as technology in this area has moved on drastically – people shouldn’t be out there suffering in silence.”

Doctor Kavita Vedhara (PhD), Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Nottingham comments: “The survey findings confirm that low water pressure is a widespread problem, which is affecting people’s emotional well-being. We might expect these harmful effects to be short-lived, however, the survey suggests that they are persistent and that people often feel they have little control over them.

“Problems and situations that people have little control over can be causes of stress and we know from other research that stressful situations are not only associated with low mood, but that they can even result in changes in the immune systems. If the stress continues for long periods of time, it can contribute to ill health (by making the immune system less effective) and can make existing illnesses worse.”