On Mar 20, 10:35*am, "TomR" wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 18, 5:20 pm, "TomR" wrote:
wrote:
Hello all,

House has got a 3/4 copper running from the meter to just a few feet
under the crawl space. It then reduced to a 1/2 inch.

Pressure and flow is there but a hair weak when I had more than one
faucet running. Is it worth it to upsize the accessible part of the
piping with 3/4? Some were ran behind the walls, Don't want to tear
out the wall and replace the 1/2 in. behind it.

So, it will end up with 3/4 for most, reduced it to 1/2 just before
it disappears behind the walls.

thanks
richard

I read all of the posts on this so far.

Do you mean the 3/4 is visible in the crawl space (and is not
"under" the crawl space)?

If so, where is the hot water heater in relation to the 3/4 copper
that is in the crawl space?

My thinking is (as others have suggested) that if you can figure out
a relatively easy way to get the 3/4 copper supply to the hot water
heater, you can make a huge improvement in the water pressure by
doing that. The idea is to have 3/4 copper all the way until it
splits off to a 1/2 copper to the cold water and a 1/2 copper to the
hot water heater.

I may not be describing this very well, but where is the hot water
tank in relation to the existing 3/4 copper? Is it easy to get the
3/4 from where it is now to the hot water heater?

TomR,

Yes, pipes are "in" the crawl space and are visible. Water heater is
about 30ft from the 3/4 service (at the point where a reducer was
installed). I think I got your idea and will change out as much as I
can; other than those behind the walls which would be short runs.
Thought about PEX, tools for it are kind of pricey for a one time job.

thanks
richard

Sounds like you may have a plan that will work.

The key to the plan is that the supply pipe needs to be all 3/4 all the way
until it gets to the hot water heater. *Any cold water lines can come
directly off of the 3/4 line and be 1/2 inch -- that's okay. *But there
can't be any part where the 3/4 main supply line drops down to 1/2 before it
gets to the hot water heater -- except AFTER the last cold water line comes
directly off of the 3/4 line. *In other words, you can't have anyplace where
the main incoming line is 1/2 inch and splits off from the 1/2 inch to one
line for the hot and one line for the cold.

It is a little hard to explain, but if there is any portion (even a very
short run) of the main incoming supply line that drops down to 1/2 inch
before it gets to the hot water heater (after the last cold water line tees
off of the 3/4 line), that will defeat the whole effort. *So, if you mean
that the new 3/4 will go to the wall somewhere, then drop to 1/2 in the
wall, then comes back out of the wall someplace else as 1/2 and switches
back to 3/4 to go on to the hot water heater, that won't work. *It has to be
all 3/4 all the way to the hot water heater, but any tees (not 90's)
directly off of the 3/4 line can be 1/2 inch.

Think a nasty busy stretch of road that causes traffic jams