Water pipe size questions

Zootal · 2010-02-08T18:27:49+00:00

The water pipes for my house are mostly attached to the ceiling of my basement (which makes it super easy to get to!). It starts out 3/4", and gets reduced to 1/2". My shower valve has 1/2 threads on it, so I see the need to reduce it at some point.In the shower, the water flow seems to be diminished. One of my shower head settings is some sort of water blast, where the water comes out of a half dozen large ports. Both hot and cold just dribble. Other settings work OK, but none of them give really good volume. I'm thinking that i'm the victim of a water mizer shower valve, and that replacing it will fix the problem. This is one of those valves where you have no control over volume - it's on or off, and all you can do is adjust the temperature.Question: Will 50 feet of 1/2 pipe reduce the flow of water such that I won't get good volume at the shower head? Or should it work fine and I need to look somewhere else for the problem (like the shower valve)?I can be easily convinced to plumb my house with 3/4 pipe, but I'd like to avoid drastic measures like that if not really necessary. The only place we really need good volume is the shower, and if 1/2 pipe will give us that, I don't need to start gutting my plumbing.

Feb 08, 2010 26 Replies

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jamesgangnc 16 years ago

Bob's right about the hot water delay, it is longer in my masterbath. There is a garden tub and I turn that on hot for a minute before I shower. But it's a waste of water.

Pex is really designed with the professional plumber in mind. It's the fastest to install in new work with a minimum of on hand parts. A pro can do a new house in a fraction of the time it took to do copper. Plus pex pipe can adapt to poorly drilled and misaligned holes better as well. If you go pex you probably should just buy a crimper. They are cheaper online and you can find them with exchangable heads.

There really is nothing wrong with cpvc. It's been around a while.

I agree, it sounds like your valve has built in restriction. You may be able to disassemble it and get more thru flow by enlarging openings. I've done that on valves and shower heads.

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Stormin Mormon 16 years ago

That's likely to get you arrested by the same cops who inspect matress and pillows to see if the tags have been removed.

Perhaps one of us should read Zootal's old messages, and see if the shower ever did function well. Could be valve, or piping restriction, now. Or, water meter, or partial frozen lead in pipe from the street, or... or....

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blueman 16 years ago

Do you also bring teflon tape? Also, be careful about carrying tools on airplanes... I once had a small allen wrench confiscated because the sign said "no tools" -- I tried to explain that an L-shaped 3" long piece of blunt hexagonal metal is not a weapon but I guess the droid thought that my pale-white, American family traveling together on vacation was obviously more of a danger than the Middle Eastern travelers with turbans and burkhas... go figure...

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Oren 16 years ago

Just for clarity, "sharkbite" connectors are not an essential component or part of a PEX system - just something folks use, if they like.

I can see your shock about cost, but they are not needed...

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Robert Neville 16 years ago

And an additional point - the economics of PEX have to be looked at as a system

- and that includes labor, not just material. If a two man crew can plumb an entire house in a day with PEX, but sweating copper would take a week, paying more for the material makes sense.

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Bob F 16 years ago

Another possible solution. Replace the shower head with a really good "low-flow" head. Because it is designed for low flow, the shower valve limitation might not be a problem for the low-flow head. It will naturally have better pressure on the low flow.

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auggie 16 years ago

i had a similer problem with pressure and it seemed the hot was not so hot even with the heater turned up beyond recomondations ... turned out a rubber gromet piece inside the valve on the hot side behind the mixer had broken off and blcoked more than half the flow, the mixer slowed down to componsate .. one of those no scald valves

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