Mechanical pressure gauge and a webcam? Just record until you notice the washer being unhappy, then wind back through the video. For bonus marks put a mains power meter on the washer power lead and leave both that and a clock in shot.
This kind of thing:
Theo
Analogue pressure gauge and some kind of camcorder?
Don't buy complicated machines that give a shit? I've never had a machine which is able to even report such a problem. If the pressure is low, it takes longer to fill, so what? Send the machine back to the shop. It's faulty.
We had a Bosch washing machine that kept reporting low pressure while running. I thought it was just that machine and after a number of unrelated fails we replaced it. But now the new washing machine has done the same, so I'm wondering whether where we are, on top of the North Downs, we experience short (a few seconds, say) mains water pressure drops.
I'm minded to attach a water pressure logger to the mains but a quick google seems to indicate that they cost some hundreds. Any cheap suggestions?
Is a drop of pressure at the input to your property or just at the machine possibly as a result of someone flushing the loo or turning on a kitchen or bathroom tap? Is your stop c*ck fully open?
On Hotpoints, this is due to it taking longer than it expects to fill, rather than a direct pressure measurement. A common cause on an older machine is a mesh grit filter before the inlet valve having got blocked with sand or rust or scale in the water supply.
Prick.
If the pressure drops are just for a few seconds you could get one of those tank things that you have pump up now and then. They have a diaphragm inside them. I had to have one feeding my instant hot water thing because if anyone turned a tap on in the basement it made it unhappy. Is it called a pressure tank?
Bill
It's called an expansion tank when used in sealed unvented hydronic central heating systems. You'd also have to include a one way valve on the mains water supply to prevent backflow when the mains water pressure drops, not only for regulatory reasons but also to maximise the benefit of the expansion tank in mitigating these transient supply pressure drops.
I would have thought that it would take seriously low pressure to upset a modern machine. Could it be that yours have high pressure flow restrictors in place that should have been removed?
Tim
Water pressure depends on the flow of water through a pipe. This means that water pressure is high when there is no flow and lower when there is a flow. Your own mains water pipe may be furred up with lime deposit if you are in a hard water area. Metal pipes are especially prone due to the roughness of the surface. Turn a tap on in the house and put your finger over it while somebody opens another tap. If there is a significant pressure drop you will soon notice. You can conduct the same experiment using a pressure guage. You don't need recording devices, they will tell you nothing useful.
As others have said, it's a problem with various modern machines which "time out" if it takes too long to fill. See eg
You could try asking on the UKWhitegoods forum if anyone has a fix for your model:
But to get this kind of short term reduction suggests somebody or some thing downstream as it were is suddenly taking a lot of water out of the feed surely? I'd have thought that you might get the supplier to get their act together and monitor for this themselves in case there is some nefarious practices going on they do not know about. What about neighbours? If its a common thing, others may well also be getting the same errors. It would also be interesting to find out what constitutes low pressure to modern machines. Brian
Actually, that would be fine if it were always an issue, but from the description its very time selective. One would expect your scenario to pan out at all times, from the description its not the case, so you need to somehow monitor demand against flow rate somehow. I remember many many years ago something like this was caused by air in a main kind of see sawing about in a low spot, so when pressure changed air would come up the pipe for a while making it splutter and almost stop, then it went back to normal. They found down the road a leak in some mains and the state of the soile around it dictated what exactly happened to the air/water mix. I'm glad I'm not a water engineer, it must be a nightmare when these sort of things start happening! Brian
I read this, and immediately wondered what you would do if it does turn out to be the water supply ?
Are water companies obliged to provide a minimum pressure .... doubtless averaged out over 24 hours ????
And if it *is* the supply to start with, what remedies are available ?
We had a low presuure problem that manifested itself only on Saturdays. The water supply company installed a data logger on the outside stop c*ck and they then made some changes to their control gear (don't kbow what specifically) and the problem was just about resolved.
It's still a bit low some Saturdays, don't know why but it's managleble now although we can't have the washing machine on when anyone is using the electric shower.
- Mike
The washing machine is 3 ft from where the mains inlet comes through the floor. Gauges upstairs measure three bar most of the time. But I'll check the stop c*ck.
Yes, we'll have to check that. It had got a bit of stuff in it when using the old machine (a Bosch), cleaning that helped for a short time. I didn't think the new one (an LG) had been there long enough for it to matter.
Where would those be?
Deffo hard water. But the supply pipe out to the road is quite new and is plastic. Why wouldn't that fur up, or indeed the mains pipe under the road? And we have a water softener that mostly works, between the supply and the washing machine.
This happens, but then we're on top of the Downs.
Why? I'm looking to see a readout graph showing spikes, or dips.
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