I am stumped. So if you can make sense of this I would appreciate the help.
I replaced 95% of my pipes in my house with copper. i used 3/4 from the meter to the Hot Water heater and 3/4 to bathroom kitchen, and washing machine. From there I used 1/2 to the actual units. I have 3/4 running up to my attic where I will be installing a new bathroom. I also have a show downstairs where i have run the water pipes but not hooked them up to the shower. I would think I would have good water pressure. I don’t in two places.
In my bathroom my shower has wicked bad hot water pressure, only. I assume that the cause of this is to do with the pipes that I didn’t replace yet, they are that hvpvc, so I thought they would be fine, but maybe not? But on the cold side its fine?
The other place is my laundry tub. If I turn on the hot or cold half way, I have rocket pressure… and then it drops off to a dribble witin 5 seconds. If I turn it up all the way it has great pressure again, it drops off again but not as bad. I had installed a new laundry tub faucet. Its the all copper kind.
I can live with it, but thought someone might have experienced this before and know where I went wrong.
thanks, larry
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it is common in my area to supply the house with 1 inch pipe [washington state] ive seen prv at the meter and you can adjust them take a pressure reading at a hose bib and see what you have for a reading
Something inside that faucet is moving and blocking the flow.
Ok I will bite, what? Not much to that faucet that I can see.
I appreciate the feedback, larry
I agree with Bill Hartmann--something inside the faucet is blocking flow. I have Grohe (not sure of spelling) shower fixture and the hot does that. If you turn it on to what seems like full, it will eventually stop down to a trickle. If you force it past a sort of sticking point, it will go from trickle to full force and then you can back it off to moderate force and then after it's fully hot, turn on cold. Any other procedure will not work. I figured valve packing is in the way. Plumber didn't know, but said the valve stem seemed to be bent, but he would be happy to go exploring for the right amount of money. I decided to live with it. Only other thing I can think might be your problem is screens being plugged with grit or rust.
I agree with the others. In your laundry faucet, something strange is going on. I've seen cheap faucets do that. Try taking it apart and seeing if anything is wrong inside. As for the shower, perhaps you've dislodged a piece of dirt in the pipes during all the work and it stuck in the hot water valve.
I've never heard of "hvpvc". What do you mean?
Your pipe sizing is more than adequate.
Well I looked over the faucet again and took it apart, nothing blocking anything. I did notice again that ONLY the hot water causes this trickle effect. The cold on the laundry faucet and Shower both have great pressure that stays good.
So I have included this drawing, I hope it helps. Because for only 2 of faucets on the hot water side to have bad pressure is very odd. Especially when the kitchen sink above the laundry sink has perfect hot and cold water pressure.
Again I have cleaned screens and double checked lines there is nothing that I can see, clogging or blocking any pipe.
As far as the hvpvc I am not 100% what its called its the pvc that you can used for water pipes, you glue it together like pvc, its kind of an off white color. I don't like the stuff I would rather use copper or PEX if I had to.
thanks again for taking the time to help me, larry"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin
That CPVC for hot water.You orginally said that was both the hot and cold on the laundry tub.You still have something in there moving. But it could be down in the line.When I was a kid I replaced a washer and apparently overtightend the screw and it broke off and the head fell down the pipe. And when the flow was enough it would move up the pipe and block the flow.And a completely different situation I have a Perless (Delta) single lever sink faucet. After several years the hot flow became a trickle. Pulled the ball out and under the seals for the hot side was this piece of rubber.pulled it out with some needle nose. Could not figure out what it was or where it came from.It was a long tube shaped with the end closed and a slit in it.Turns out that it was a "check valve" and that there was one in the hot and cold side at the end of the builtin "risers" where it connects to the supply lines.You might need to remove the faucet and connect a hose and flush out the supply lines and back flow through the faucet to get anything that is in it.For the shower. Is it pressure balanced? If so I would try replacing the pressure balance cartridge.But again there might be something down in the supply line or stuck in the valve.
Thanks, your right I first thought it was hot and cold at the laundry tub. I will tear this thing apart again and look for stray material or torn stuff.
I would like to flush the lines, but I didn't really get how you were saying to do that. Remove the laundry faucet leaving the supply lines, then hook up a hose to where?
A plumber friend explained flushing the system, by hooking up a hose to the laundry tub and adding a T near the meter and opening up the drain spout on my water heater and let it run. Is that what your saying?
As far as the shower goes, I will look into it. But as far as pressure, I only get it from the cold side, so I would say the pressure is not balanced."Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin
"A plumber friend explained flushing the system, by hooking up a hose to the laundry tub and adding a T near the meter and opening up the drain spout on my water heater and let it run. Is that what your saying?"He is talking about back flushing, which depending on on all of the ups and downs in the piping may be be or worse then what I was thinking about.Remove the faucett connections on the hot side. It depends on what you have for connections.For exampel if you have a compression fitting to a stop valve I would remove that. Then get some thread fittings, it might take a couple of parts, to go from compression to pipe thread to hose thread.Then put the other end of the hose whereever it can take the flow. Outside or the maybe the laundry tub if it can take the flow.Then turn the main water one for a couple of minutes."As far as the shower goes, I will look into it. But as far as pressure, I only get it from the cold side, so I would say the pressure is not balanced."New codes require a pressure balancing valve for showers, but you can get them with and without.The pressure balance one sense the cold water pressure and if it drops (such from a toilet flush) then it is suppose to reduce the hot water flow to match.It might be that feature that is screwing up (if you got a pressure balance valve).You can get expesnive ones that control both flow and temp. But the common pressure balacne valves have a single control that goes from off ot cold to hot without and volume control.
I second Bill's advice. Turn off the water. Remove the angle stops that feed the fixtures (one at a time). Use a threaded coupling to connect a hose bibb. Attach a garden hose and toss it out the window. Turn on the water and open the hose bibb and flush everything out.
You should get almost the same flow from every riser you install, unless one is in the basement and another is in the attic, in which case the attic is slower. Use a 5 gallon bucket and see how long it takes to fill.
Once you've determined that there are no flow issues in the piping, reconnect the fixtures and see what ya got.
Thanks, I understand what you meant by flushing, I will give it a try. This is for sure a shower pre-pressure balancing valve but that helps explain things.
"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin
Is the shower head the one that came with the balancing valve? The instructions with mine said that the valve only works with its matching head. If the laundry faucet seems OK, check out the little water stop valve ahead of it under the sink.
-- J.S.