Friday, September 27, 2013

What is the PSI of a typical kitchen faucet

While converting an old h2o fire extinguisher into a mobile water source for showering/rinsing on beach fishing trips i needed to know how high to pressurize it. I could pressurize it up to 120 psi, but I needed to find the average of a typical kitchen sink to mimic that flow rate and minimize unnecessary water loss, so I'm not working with a mere trickle of water, nor blasting the skin off of my feet. 

Answer: the average kitchen faucet in a house can supply 2.5-3 GPM (gallons per minute) at 50 psi. That is the recommended average hose working pressure in North America. This is affected by too many factors to list here, but the average kitchen faucet measures out actual flow at around 30-35 psi. Most city codes require 20+ psi for sanitation reasons. Seem rural communities on wells achieve ~15 which is considered the absolute minimum acceptable flow. 




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