Water Pressure Problems, Please Help!

19 years ago

I am having problems in the house I just bought with the water pressure. When we did the inspection, all the water worked in the 2 faucets on the first floor, but the water pressure coming out the shower head and bath spout just drizzled out. The inspector suggested that I would just need to change the shower head and clean it out. I brought a plumber in and that is not the case. He said everything looked pretty good. He did let me know that even though I do have water coming out the bathroom and kitchen sink, it is not very strong either.

Then I called a well company to check the well pump and bladder tank. They said that everything looked good and that I was getting 40-50 PSI of pressure in the system.

I tried to increase the pressure by turning on the bypass of the softner, and still the same.

The only place I do have good pressure is at the hose spout about 1 ft after the well pump before the line oges into the water softner.

What do you think or suggest?

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Comments (4)

patches123
19 years ago
I have the opposite problem, but from what I have read you need closer to 60- 70. Do you have a pressure reducing valve installed?
lazypup
19 years ago
Under the International Residential Code the minimum permissable static head pressure is 40psi while under the Uniform Plumbing Code it is only 15psi.

40 to 50psi is more than adequate to maintain volume and turning the pressure up would have little to no effect at the fixture other than to cause premature failure of the internal seals.

steveJ0's problem is not pressure, it is a problem with volume of flow.

He states that the flow is fine at the hose bibb which is tapped off the main before the water softener but he has problems downstream of the water softener. In addition, opening the bypass did not eliminate the problem so we can rule out the water softener as the root cause. This only leaves on conclusion, there is an obstruction to the volume of flow between the point where the hose bibb Tee's off and the point where the water softener bypass tee's off.

I would check between those two points very carefully looking for a section of galvanized pipe or a galvanized pipe nipple that may be corroded internally, a defective globe valve(all valves should be full bore type valves -gate valve or ball valve), an undersized section of pipe or perhaps a section of copper pipe that has been dented and causes a restriction.

You can rule out a defective Pressure Reducing Valve because this is a well pump system and PRV's are never necessary on a well pump system.
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patches123
19 years ago
lazypup - glad you posted...you always have great advice. Hopeflly you can read my post about my failed PRV.
lazypup
19 years ago
Patches,,I answered your post complete with a manufacturer and part number for an affordable top of the line PRV.