I have a low pressure water system which I would like to keep, but would like increased hot water pressure. I've heard that an electric driven booster pump installed in series with the hot water line is a good option. Has anyone had experience using one of these? How practical is it & what are the pluses & minuses.
tweake,
Sep 23, 3:35am
i have one. issues, the pump sucks water out of the tank faster than it goes in until the level drops down and it starts sucking air. needed a pressure release valve fitted on the pipe that goes up through the roof.
still got one issue, part of it could be air locking because the pump was fitted in where it could be and not an ideal place. also my cold water pressure is very high so even with the pump there is still a big difference in pressure/flow between hot and cold.
pump, i got a grundfos pump that uses a flow sensor instead of pressure switch. which is good, you don't get the pump turning on in the middle of the night because its leaked a little and pressure dropped. but you have to flow enough for the pump to turn on which can be a pain if your trying to run it really really really slow.
lythande1,
Sep 23, 6:15pm
Yes the booster pumps are excellent. Husband installed one for a friend and she loves it.
tegretol,
Sep 24, 4:37am
Yep, have 3 in this house - brilliant. Post #2 - I suspect is taking about a high volume commercial pump.
By the way, the object of the excercise is NOT to increase the pressure - it's to increase the flow.
tweake,
Sep 24, 4:44am
no, its a standard household hot water booster pump.
tegretol,
Sep 24, 5:58am
Be interested to know what the pump brand/model is - any pump that can overcome the incoming main pressure supply into the HT is pretty grunty. I've been using the ones as per listing 2791742383 and no failures since first one went in in 2005. Doesn't actually take much flow boosting and a damned sight cheaper than doing what many suggest - upgrade the entire system to a mains pressure one! Yer right about using a flow switch - as per that auction.
i suspect with my setup there is an intake restriction, possibly the incoming pressure regulator. i'm told the mains water pressure here is very high and i know some regulators will restrict flow when they have high inlet pressure. one of the projects is to revamp the house water system and fit some filters as town water supply tastes horrible.
tegretol,
Sep 24, 8:00am
So you're feeding you're feeding your header tank from the mains via a pressure regulator?
trade4us2,
Sep 24, 8:15am
What is the height of the shower head above the bottom of the water cylinder (measure it with a tape measure) and does it say it's a cylinder for 7.6 metre pressure? I have never needed a pump unless the shower is on the floor above (which it should not be!)
ruie,
Sep 24, 9:13am
Thank you all for your input & comments. Sounds promising & I will follow up the two pump examples mentioned.
ruie,
Sep 24, 9:14am
The hot water cylinder & shower are on the same floor with the shower head approx 1.8m from floor level. Not sure what the pressure rating of the hot water cylinder is as we're not living at the property.
tegretol,
Sep 24, 9:39pm
What height above floor level is the bottom of the header tank? That determines the pressure.
gabbysnana,
Sep 24, 10:39pm
180 litre main pressure, hi tech tank installed cost me $1860. Cheap.
ruie,
Sep 24, 11:15pm
There is no header tank. The high pressure mains goes through a pressure regulator straight into the hot water cylinder. The hot water cylinder does have a copper pipe that goes up through the roof of the house which allows the pressure to develop & also acts as an overflow.
trade4us2,
Sep 24, 11:17pm
That's the same as all the houses I have been in. So if you can find a label that says the tank can stand 7.6 metres of pressure, you should be able to get a plumber to wind the pressure up to that pressure (one way or another) so no pump needed. I used to have a pressure release valve near the top of my tank but now I have put back the open pipe to the top of the roof, and that gives no more trouble. I have a sieve at the top to stop mosquitoes or birds dropping seed into the pipe.
ruie,
Sep 25, 1:43am
Thanks for your comments trade4us2. I will check that the pressure regulator valve is set to the cylinder maximum prior to buying a pump. Just one other factor that I haven't mentioned that may be important. The house has incredibly high cold water pressure. Maybe reducing the mains water pressure may help the hot water flow at the shower nozzle? Any comments on this would be appreciated.
zirconium,
Sep 25, 3:18am
We have a (very grunty) grunfos pump on a rural tank household supply. There is pressure reducing valve in the line that doesn't allow more than 3.5 bar - the house is 13 years old (Auckland) and this was a requirement when we built. :)
tweake,
Sep 25, 3:27am
yours sounds exactly like mine. plumber installed a pressure release valve and turned up the pressure regulator so tank is at max pressure. it does stuff all water pressure wise. nothing compared to what the pump does.
i have yet to check the pressure but a different plumber suggested changing the old pvc cold water pipes due to the high mains pressures. it will be interesting to see what the pressure is.
les6,
Sep 25, 5:41am
I have two of the listing number someone mentioned.One in the kitchen under the sink as the distance form the hotwater cylinder gave us sod all flow.It works well and was easy to fit and we had a powerpoint in there for the dishwasher already.The other one is in the laundry for the simpson washing machine the mrs loves but could not do hot washes anymore after they changed the filler valve somehow so it had to have high pressure.it just comes on with the flow sensor and works well.I would give it a try.
peric,
Sep 25, 7:23am
After having little success with a traditional pump, tried a Dragon’s Den reject. Interesting story. https://www.wrightpumps.co.uk/ It was a last resort where installing a mains pressure tank was not viable. The mixer was fitted with a venturi, the low pressure tank was feed via a reducing valve from relatively low town mains supply, and the tank was open vented. The shower experience was horrible. For some reason a traditional booster pump when tried suffered from air in the system. Whilst the Wright pump was a gamble and was sensitive to the type of hand held shower head it worked. Still not as effective as a mains pressure system but OK. I suspect a fixed head may have been more effective. Also it had the advantage of not requiring an electrician being feed from low, 12V dc power adapter Note. NZ pipe sizes differ and adapter fittings are listed.
trade4us2,
Sep 25, 8:51am
Since I am at near sea level my cold water pressure was very high, so I put a pressure reducing valve for all pipes in the house. The taps don't judder and the washers now last forever. I have one high pressure outside tap for fighting fires!
tegretol,
Sep 25, 8:57am
Out of curiosity, how does your altitude affect your water pressure?
ruie,
Sep 25, 7:21pm
Thanks again for all your input. I have checked out the Wright pump . looks very interesting. I'm also going to look at reducing the mains pressure if a pump solution isn't enough.
Re tegretol's question about sea level. The water pressure is determined by the difference in height between the local reservoir and your house. The greater the height difference, the higher the pressure, all other things being equal. In our case we can see the reservoir at the highest point on a local hill and the house is low at the base of the hill.
tegretol,
Sep 25, 7:42pm
If you're direct feeding the HWC from pressure-reduced mains, I'm still perplexed at why you need a pump at all. Just crank the pressure up a bit - you'll know when you've gone too far as the PRV will let go.
ruie,
Sep 25, 7:58pm
It's a low pressure hot water cylinder which I believe is already at maximum pressure. I will check that this is the case though.
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