Hello all.
I have a two storey plus basement home in a nice little town with municipal water. The problem is I’m a mile or so from the town water tank, with a few nice hills inbetween. The water pressure by the time it gets to my second floor shower sometimes lack the oomph to have a decent shower. Sometimes the pressure is fine. I was thinking of planning some kind of pressure tank with a booster pump. Any body out there in Breaktime land ever do this? Any suggestions?
Have a good day and Thanks.
Cliffy
Replies
You may have to do that.
But first check with the city and see what your pressure is suppose to be. And measure the pressure where it comes in with no flow and with flow. Then repeat at the 2nd story.
If you have steel pipe, either service or 2 the 2nd floor, the corrosion might be blocking the flow.
I owned a house that was on a private water line hooked to the village system. Three other homeowners were on the line with me, further downstream. It was right near the water tower at the highest elevation in the village, so it had the lowest pressure. Over the years various repairs had been made by the homeowners, which eventually resulted in us all sharing a 1" line for four houses on a system with low pressure to begin with.
We managed along fine until the guy at the end got fed up and put in a pump. When his pump kicked on, the other two neighbors' pressure dropped below zero. When the other neighbors opened faucets or flushed toilets they sucked in air. So they got pumps, too.
Because I was first, I never sucked air, but the pressure during my morning shower would sometimes drop to nothing. One morning I stood there covered in soap so long I dried off from just standing there. So, I installed a bladder tank and check valve. The tank would charge to peak pressure when none of us was using water, and I could shower uninterrupted off of the accumulated water in the tank. If my shower went too long when their pump was on, I'd be out of luck. But, it worked fine nearly every day.
A year later the village extended the water main and installed a 3" line to replace the cobbled up 1" mess. Fine ever since.
So, a pump and pressure tank will work fine. That's what my neighbors had. If your pressure is sufficient at peak, but drops for only a few minutes at a time, you might get by with only a pressure tank. (Both arrangements require check valves to hold the pressure.)
Install pressure gauges when you do the work so you can know what's going on. Or before hand, even.
The pressure drops 0.43 psi for every foot of elevation. So if the pressure in your basement is, say, 40 psi, then 18 feet higher it would be 33 psi.
Have you tried drilling out the flow restrictor orifice in the shower head? It won't help if the pressure drops off suddenly, but can give you more flow at your steady low pressure.
Is there a regulator in the piping coming from the street? It would be downstream of the meter. If so, it might need to be adjusted. Wayne has the right idea about gages though, I would install them before and after the meter/regulator to give you an idea how those components are performing (regulators do fail occaisionally.)
Cliff,
Before you do anything, see what pressure you have at the showerhead during use. I'm pushing 80 PSI in my house and my second floor shower still sucks 'cause of all the Federally mandated restrictors they put in 'um, and not just the shower head, the valves are restricted too.
WSJ
i saw a deal the other day that was a pressure pump that would increase pressure by 40lbs. looked pretty simple but cost 300.00 . if you interested next time i'm in the store i could check the brand, seems like it was a pretty common name brand just don't remember larry