larger bore pie kitchen taps

Mar 29, 2012 4 Replies
A

I recently replaced the kitchen sink and taps, the water supply is fed from the mains for the cold and a hot water tank fed from a storage tank on the floor above. It's not a combi boiler setup.



The pressure of both the hot and cold from the previous taps was excellent. The new taps are very much lower in pressure, the cold mains is barely adequate and the hot is just a trickle.



The water is supplied by standard, I think 14 mm copper pipes and there is a flexible metal coupling hose and that screws into the tap unit. It is obviously this reduction in size but is causing the much lower pressure.



I didn't install the original taps. But they were connected to the 14 mm copper pipes with what looks like a 14 mm to 12 mm reducer coupling. I'm not sure what size the new internal pipe size is but it is obviously much smaller.



I bought the taps from Homebase not realising that there was such a dramatic difference. Can anyone suggest where I can buy attractive stainless steel finished taps which will allow me to connect a larger bore of pipe? I've been searching online and as far as I can see all the taps I've looked at are connected by a flexible hose.



Thanks



Alan



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C

What does the documentation for the taps say about minimum pressure?

Are they mixers?

Some of them include check valves, which can cause a significant flow reduction.

Chris

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T

I doubt it is the flexible. Much more likely the taps are designed for a combi/high pressure set up. I come across this all the time.

Go back to Homobase & tell them they are a bunch of numptys. They have sold you the wrong taps. They should have asked or had information on display informing customers about tap suitability. Wickes do so.

Buy your new taps from a proper plumbers merchants - tell them the set up & they will sell you the right taps.

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B

What sort of flow rates are you getting? (Turn tap on full, then measure how many seconds it takes to fill a 1 litre jug. Divide that into 60 to get litres/minute)

I get 15 litres/min for cold water from my kitchen tap, and 6 litres/min hot (via a combi-boiler). Both from the same mixer tap.

(BTW is it allowed to have mains water, and water from a (possibly open) storage tank, at the same mixer tap? I would have thought there would be some contamination (of the drinking water coming from the tap).)

It sounds unlikely that a previously good flow would be reduced to a trickle simply by using a smaller diameter pipe. (Presumably the gate valve from the tank has been fully turned back on? The other taps are off?)

Anything stylish-looking is likely to have those narrow tails to connect to.

Was the hose supplied with the tap? Could it be buckled?

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