Water supply problem

Yes it looks like a regulator but I feel that it could be your length of

See what you mean but the 1.5bar it drops to is at the house stopcock before the 15mm pipe. If it didn't drop so low at 12 l/min I might consider putting in a parallel 22mm pipe to my shower.

Why do they use a regulator, do you think?

Sent from a friend's computer without succeeding in setting up ID (Mac is obscure), but it should have been from me!

It sounds to me that there is some obstruction. The first thing is to check what happens in your neighbour's houses.

There may be crud in the pipework or the pressure reducing valve may be stuck.

The latter is the most likely if your neighbours are not affected (I assume this PRV is on the pipe that is for your house only). If so, the only thing to do is dismantle and free it off or replace it.

BTW, You can check if the PRV is stuck by trying to adjust it. The water needs to be flowing whilst you do this. Screwing the adjuster on top IN (clockwise) increases pressure. (Counterintuitive) If there is no pressure change, then the PRV is stuck and needs attention.

Thanks, I'll try the suggestion in your other post to test the regulator.. Is 2.8 bar a sensible pressure restriction, or could it be an attempt by the supplier to protect the supply pressure by restricting all the local houses' usage?

Can I assume that since the regulator is my side of the stopcock for the house I can remove it if I want to?

3 bar seems a standard value - our water softener requires a pressure limiting valve if the static pressure is above 3 bar.

Cheers

Dave R

Well it depends on the upstream water pressure. Presumably it was put in because pressure would be high without it.

Yes, I don't know quite how high it is. The regulator seems to work ok, about 0.4 bar per turn of the adjuster screw. My remaining problem is where and why the flow restriction exists. The plastic supply pipe is about 22mm overall. Is it possible it is only about 12mm ID, that may explain why the pressure drops so much at 12litres/min? It is probably about 30+ years old. If so, I suppose I need a bigger pipe.

Or in slightly less arcane units, about 1bar per 10M head. (1bar= approx

Tim

Are you sure the stop tap is fully open?

Has it always been thus? If not, there is likely corrosion in any iron/ steel pipes in the system.

Quite often when such old pipe are taken up, the bore is reduced right down by corrosion/scale.

Who owns the communal pipe? It' will be their responsibility to fix if the problem is bad enough to warrant it.

Do you know what pressure rating the pipe is? The regulator may be there to make sure you don't exceed it.

JFI I have just removed some pipes, both bartrol acorn, both 15mm, one rated at 2 bar, the other at 7 bar, they look the same, take the same inserts, etc., so don't make assumptions based on what they look like.