Posted: 1/29/2009 10:12:28 PM EDT
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I'll start this by saying I'm not a plumber, but hopefully someone here is and can help me.
When I start my shower, I get so-so water pressure. After approx. ten minutes, the pressure goes down to nearly a trickle, then after another 5 minutes, goes back up to so-so water pressure. This of course makes taking a shower a horrible task. Any ideas what is causing the loss in pressure, or what can be done to fix it? For info- shower is on second story, water heater is in the basement. I live in the city, and have city water. The cold water from the sink does it also, but it is barley noticable and seems to have good pressure all the time. The water heater is on a timer, but is set to be always on due to my crazy rotating schedule. Thanks for any and all help. |
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You may have a watter pressure regulator on the system. It generally would be located very near the point that the main water line comes in to the structure. This is a higher failure item than most think,
It looks a bit like a valve of sorts and that would be the first area I would look into if you do have one. They are not super expensive (about $60) and can usually be purchased at most home improvement stores or a plumbing supply. If you do have one and choose to start with that, it is also best to replace it with an in kind unit so there is no fitting problems. You have to turn the main supply off and expect to get a few gallons of water feeding back from the house lines when the body of the regulator is unscrewed. |
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Thanks for the replies so far. I went into the basement today and looked everywhere for a pressure regulator. All I can find is where to shut off the main, and where it branches off to the house, so I don't think I have one.
I did fiddle with my automatic shut off on my water heater. I had forgotten about time changes, and loss of power, so the time was way off. I changed the on off positions so it pretty much stays on all the time now. The shower is on the second floor, and is the only bathroom. All of the sinks do it a little, but the upstairs seems to be the most affected. |
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Ask your neighbors if they have the same situation.
Get a hold of the city and inform them, you may have a problem in the ground/hole in your main water line coming into the house. Not sure about code there, but here you run 3/4 line and then you can feed to water appliances with 1/2 line run from the 3/4 line. You probably can see everywhere that the lines branch off but it may be something else to think about. Good luck |
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I've looked in the basement as much as I can. My house is over a hundred years old, and the plumbing is very hard to trace.
My water bill is hardly anything, so I doubt if there is a leak in the main anywhere. I hope fiddling with the water heater automatic shut off will help- I'll find out in a little bit. |
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If there is something wrong in the main, your water bill would not show it. I say that only because my water meter is in the house.
As you state the age of your home, is your plumbing the galvanized pipe still? If so, then I would suspect that the pipes are plugging up with chit. Is there anyplace in the system you can take a piece out and look? Hope this helps you out. Vermen |
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If it were just the water heater, I don't think it would be showing as a pressure issue, unless you only shower in full hot water. Otherwise it would present itself as no hot water. I assume the pressure drops out on both hot and cold. All the shut off does is kill the power to it.
Pics? |
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Yep, if that house has never been re-plumbed you probably have the equivalant of 1/4" lines running upstairs. Old galvanized pipe should be replaced and that would more than likely solve your problem. Easier said than done, I know...but that may be where you are headed.
Bryan |
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Thanks for the help guys.
Parts of the house have been re-plumbed, other parts haven't. The pipes going upstairs to the bathroom is copper. Okay- this makes no sense, but after I fiddled with the switch on the water heater, I haven't had any problems. It makes no sense, but my shower yesterday was so-so pressure for the whole thing. |
| Water only changes .433 psi per inch of elevation change, so you should only have about 5psi less upstairs than downstairs. What you need to do first is get a static pressure gauge (hardware store for $5) and measure the pressure at a hose bib. This will give you the pressure from the city main. Around here it is 50-80psi. Any difference in pressure you experience when you turn on the faucet or shower will then be due to dynamic pressure losses in the system - bottlenecks, too small pipe, lime buildup, whatever. Have you always had low pressure in the upstairs? What is the pipe diameter? |