On Feb 7, 1:29*am, Evan wrote:
On Feb 6, 11:40*pm, wrote:





On Thu, 2 Feb 2012 13:22:38 -0800 (PST), Evan

wrote:
On Feb 2, 9:08*am, N8N wrote:
On Feb 2, 6:34*am, "83LowRider" wrote:

Evan wrote:
You should have a water pressure gauge installed
somewhere near your water meter if you do not
have one currently installed...

That's something I'd have to call someone in for.
I wouldn't mind having a plumber come out for
something definitive, but I hate to pay for something
that is going to be a seek and find game if there is
anything left to be done that I could check or do
myself. Back to your statement, I don't know how
much a gauge at the meter would tell me as there
is slightly over a quarter-mile of pipe coming up
alongside the driveway along with a fairly steep incline.

You can get a gauge that you can screw onto the drain valve of your
water heater, an outside spigot, or a laundry sink faucet (basically
it's a pressure gauge with a brass fitting on it to convert it to
female garden hose thread) for not much cash at your local Big Box.
Just have to be careful not to kick it while it's installed.

nate

nate

Installing such a gauge at the locations you described would
not allow the OP to determine whether or not the issue is
with the water company or not...

It is sort of like the whole telephone demarc box type thing,
they are required by state/local regulations to provide water
service to you at x-pressure to the water meter... *Anything
inside the house is your responsibility to deal with past the
meter...

~~ Evan

*Is there a spec on how much FLOW they must provide at that pressure?
A restricted pipe will provide exactly the same STATIC pressure as an
unrestricted pipe, but the flow will drop off appreciably with any
flow. (through the restricted pipe)

The FLOW or demand capacity is generally determined
by the sizing of the line... *It sounds like the OP's water
supply line might be undersized for his location and the
specific site conditions (top of a big hill, long pipe run from
the street main) where a pipe sized for a normal house
not located on a hill would be fine...

Or the flow could be restricted by an obstruction, kink
in plastic pipe, a partially closed valve, etc. Hence his
point on a RESTRICTED pipe. It doesn't matter if you
have 1" pipe or 4" pipe if some restriction has it choked
off to the same effective passage.



The problem here is either that the water system pressure
has dropped again between the water works and the OP's
house for whatever reason (intentional choice by water
department or due to unknown as yet undetected leaks
somewhere) to the point where the OP's pressure and flow
rate drop when his home uses too much volume at the
same time...


Or it could be a restriction.


Either the pressure needs to be increased back to
what it was, the size of the feeder pipe from the street
main enlarged to help with the flow capacity at the new
pressure the water department has established OR the
OP will likely need to install a large buffering tank in his
basement and supply his water by pumping it out of that
tank with a jet pump, if the other options aren't to his
liking...

~~ Evan- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Or if it's a restriction, the restriction needs to be found
and fixed. I'd check for that before I installed a larger
service.