How to improve hot water pressure

Hi,

I've always had reasonable hot water pressure in my house from a hot water tank in an airing cupboard in the bathroom fed from a plastic cold water tank above it in the roof space.

I have replaced the sink in my kitchen, I now have one of those swiveling mono taps which is connected to the hot water pipe by a flexible braided tube that has a smaller internal diameter than 15mm copper. There's also an inline mesh filter.

The flow of water has been reduced from a reasonable gushing to a barely useful trickle.

I could fit a pump to boost the pressure but then it's just more electrical power to consume and it will wear out and break down one day.

So, why not improve the head to the tank? The cold water tank in the roof is resting on wooden beams across the rafters. What if I raised the height of the tank by placing more beams on the existing ones. There's only a few pipes going to the tank and it's made of plastic, so it would seem to be an easy job.

Does anyone know a formula to give the head from a known height. Eg. how much higher would the tank have to be, before I notice an improvement in the water pressure?

Thanks

Reply to
Rob
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Can the sink be refitted but without the flex?,the internal bore will almost certainly be the main restriction. If you really want all round gushing hot water,consider a pressurised hot water cylinder. Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

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Reply to
tarquinlinbin

The flexible hose comes with the tap. It is probably about 10mm in external diameter which is the size of the hole in the base of the tap. Which means that I can't use a biger pipe.

The base of the tap is only about 35mm in diameter, into which is fitted hot & cold flexible hoses and a threaded rod that holds it all in place. Hence the reason for the flexible hose being so small. Obviously the cold water is mains pressure and altough reduced from the tap, it is still reasonable.

Reply to
Rob

Its not hard to make the calculations - Assume a tank in the loft of a typical two story house might be 4 metres above a kichen sink. If you could lift it up 50 centimetres you would get 12.5% more head, or pressure. In a bungalow it might be more worthwhile, as with a header tank only 2 metres above the tap, a 50cm rise would give 25% more head. If you want pressures 1 metre of water exerts a pressure of 0.1 bar, or 1.4 lbs/sq in (excuse the mixed units).

Perhaps more to the point, if the tap was working and the new one isn't, I would investigate to check that there isn't a blockage somewhere in the connections or the tap itself before trying anything else.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Mckenzie

10m makes 1 bar. A mains pressure tap such as you've fitted usally requires at least a bar, so the tank should be a bit over 10m above the tap (i.e. kitchen on ground floor and tank on stilts in loft above a 3 storey house). Allow an extra few metres for any double check valves, which may require you to add on a storey or two. 1 bar is a minimum and won't provide particularly powerful performance, either.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

It appears a high pressure mixer was fitted. The type required is a low pressure hot and high pressure cold. There usually a non-return valve in the hot side.

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Reply to
Doctor Evil

I expect you have probably thought of this, but just in case....have you checked the filter? We fitted one of these taps recently and it initially didn't work well at all, turned out to be that the filter was clogged with bits which had come from inside the pipework after all the plumbing alterations. AFter discovering this I checked the bathroom basin tap which has been slowly getting slower (!) and that one is much improved now too. Just a thought.....

Reply to
Holly in France

Rob I often find that the flexi tail has been squashed when fitting,check that out first it can make quite a difference

Reply to
Alex

They particularly constrain themselves if they have been twisted, which often happens when tightening an end.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

"Rob" wrote in news:1117008831.095128.93130 @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

BTDT, and raising the tank will not help:

I ended up using a booster pump, it's absolutely quiet, the pressure boost is not enormous (Grundfos DHW booster), but it's made ahelluva difference to the kitchen. It only runs when flow is required.

Also to the bath, though I hadn't many complaints there, it's 22mm nearly all the way

mike

Reply to
mike ring

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