I know this topic has been beat to death, however I could not find any post's specific to my problem.

I have a new house (built less then a year ago) It takes several minutes to get hot water to the bathroom sinks and shower. Also I would like to increase the pressure in my showers.

Specifics on the house. Three bedroom two bath four sinks total. 40 gal water heater. City water (not sure of pressure coming to house).

I have read about booster pumps, flushing the water heater etc.. Would like to know the best place to start. Thanks for any and all help.

Ed
San Antonio, TX

I think the first thing is to establish the incoming pressure. That means connecting in a pressure gage. Maybe go to a hardware store or home center and buy a pressure gage, a common 0-150 psi. Buy whatever fittings to go to a female 3/8'' compression fitting. Often they have flexible tubing with 1/2'' pipe on the other end. Bush down to the gage, likely 1/8'' or 1/4'' pipe. Then go to any angle stop in your house, and shut it off. Remove the tubing to it, and connect your gage. Turn the water on and read the pressure. Then open a near by faucet and see how much it drops. I am guessing it should be about 60-90psi to start, and then drop no more than a third. If Tom gives different figures, go with his.

If the pressure is less than 40 psi, better ask the city to explain why. If it drops too far, go through the previous posts on finding and cleaning restrictions. No matter how badly restricted the plumbing is, with no water running, the pressure should be the same as at the meter. With a restriction, pressure will be much lower beyond it when water is running.

Except with relatively high pressure, it is going to take a while to get hot water at the end of long runs. Our downstairs power room has 30'-40' of 3/4'' pipe back to the hot water heater. The pump doesn't kick on until about 40 psi. It seems forever before we have hot water.

I know this topic has been beat to death, however I could not find any post's specific to my problem.

I have a new house (built less then a year ago) It takes several minutes to get hot water to the bathroom sinks and shower. Also I would like to increase the pressure in my showers.

Specifics on the house. three bedroom two bath four sinks total. 40 gal water heater. City water (not sure of pressure coming to house).

I have read about booster pumps, flushing the water heater etc.. would like to know the best place to start. Thanks for any and all help.

Ed
San Antonio, TX


Hi Ed,

"It takes several minutes to get hot water to the bathroom sinks and shower. Also I would like to increase the pressure in my showers."

This is really your complaint, right? Because I don't have all the specifics I'm going to hafta do some guessing here.
I'm guessing you have a one story house built on a slab and the water heater is out in the garage or in a utility room located some distance from the master bath. Stop me if I'm wrong but the solution is going to be the same no matter what.
I live in Florida on the coast where all our homes have the water heater installed in the garage and the master bath at the other end of the house.
Your problem isn't new to us.
For the long wait to get hot water to the master bath you have two options.
(1) Install a small "kicker heater" near the master bath in series with the hot water line. OR
(2) Install a recirculating pump and line. This consists of a 1/2" line from the heater to the hot water branch feed to the master bath connected to a small recirculating pump that takes hot water from the heater and feeds it to the branch line of the master bath so hot water's always on tap. (recomended)

As for your showers, remove the shower head. You will see a small neoprene washer with tiny holes around the edge. This is called a water saver. Pry it out ,toss it, reinstall the shower head and rub-a-dub under a full stream.
Hope this helped. Tom

You hit the nail on the head. Single story, water heater in the garage and master bath on other end of the house. Thanks for the input. I love this forum.

Ed
San Antonio, TX