Pump Head Pressure Calculator

About this calculator

Total pump head is the sum of three components a pump must overcome: static lift (the vertical height the water must be raised), friction loss (energy lost to resistance along the pipe run, which grows with pipe length and flow rate and shrinks with larger pipe diameter), and the pressure head needed at the outlet, converted from pressure units to an equivalent height in meters — roughly 10.2 meters of head per bar of required pressure.

Irrigation installers, plumbers and pool technicians calculate total head before selecting a pump, because a pump's rated flow rate is only accurate at a specific head — undersizing the pump for the actual head means weak flow or pressure at the outlet, while oversizing wastes energy and money on a pump doing more work than the system needs.

This calculator takes your static lift, pipe run details and required outlet pressure and returns the total head in meters your pump must deliver, so you can choose a pump rated for your system's actual conditions rather than guessing.