Hi,

I've just bought a house and noticed that the water pressure was very poor.
The house is on city mains, mainly copper piped and has oil (kerosene) fired central heating.

Here's what I've done so far...

Checked under kitchen sink for stop-cock to turn up pressure. There isn't a stop-cock there.
Hunted various other places for the stop-cock and eventually found it in the housing for the oil-burner. To be honest, the plumbing at the burner looks like someone got a lego-set for christmas.

Turned the stop-cock fully open but this didn't make any difference to the pressure in the house water.

Took a closer look at the plumbing at the burner and it appears that the city-mains is first routed through a pressure-reduction-valve before being T'd off between the heating system and the domestic cold water.

Having looked at this I am wondering if it is possible to adjust the system so that the domestic mains is T'd off before the pressure-reduction-valve?

As it is impossible to describe the system fully I have set a page on geocities at

http://www.geocities.com/plumbing.problems

This has a picture of the complete plumbing at the back of the burner (including the city-mains coming in at the bottom left in a blue pipe). I have provided enlargements of the pressure-reducing-valve and a couple of other items which I'm unsure about and also a picture of what I was intending to do to rectify my problem.

If anyone can give me any help\info with any of the above I would be extremely grateful.

If you require any further info or pictures please don't hesitate to ask.

Many thanks in advance

procyon

Hi,

I stayed at a house once which had a similar problem to yours. Also copper pipes and low water pressure. We discovered that there were deposits inside the copper pipes which were blocking the pipes. By running a tap at full blast and block it with a hand, it caused some of the deposits to break and the pressure was much better.

Yours could possibly just be a setting problem somewhere, but I just thought I would share my story in case it is blocked copper pipes.

Thanks for the prompt response Dragonfire. I gave it a try, without any success. I hadn't considered it being a build up as the house is only 5 years old.

Thanks again

procyon

What's the house pressure after the PRV and have you increased the pressure at the PRV valve? Regards, Tom

The PRV appears to be a set one, as opposed to adjustable and has '3 bar' written on the top, which I think is circa 45 psi.



My thinking on bypassing it was, that if the city mains had come straight into the house, as is normal, then the oil burner plumbing would have been T'd off it, so the PRV would have been after the house mains.

The pressure reading on the PRV when no water is being used is 3 bar, when the kitchen tap is turned up full, this drops to 1 bar (circa 14 psi).
With the kitchen tap turned on, practically no water comes through the taps in the bathroom. Flushing any of the toilets cuts the pressure to the kitchen sink, etc


Many thanks

procyon

"The pressure reading on the PRV when no water is being used is 3 bar, when the kitchen tap is turned up full, this drops to 1 bar (circa 14 psi).
With the kitchen tap turned on, practically no water comes through the taps in the bathroom. Flushing any of the toilets cuts the pressure to the kitchen sink, etc"

This would tend to indicate a volume problem. (Looking at your layout made me dizzy and gave me a headach!). They sure don't plumb in Ireland like they do in the states. Regards, Tom

Have you called the city water department to see if their valve is opened all the way at the curb? Always start with the simple things first.

Speedball,

Thanks anyway ;-)
One thing I did find out, the heating system is a sealed system, the flexible metal pipe is for refilling\topping up when necessary. I've just received the installation manual for the boiler so I'll see what else I can find.

NorthernHeat,

It wasn't something I had considered as my next door neighbours have excellent pressure. I could give them a call any just in case ;-)

Thank to all