Low water pressure from city

I am on city water and have very low (at least I think it is) water pressure. I can barely run a single sprinkler (two is out of the question). I tried to connect a slip-n-slide for my grandson the other day and my pressure was so low I could not effectively wet the slide.

I built a simple pressure gauge to attach to my outside spigot and got only 32 psi with nothing using any water. I have read that average pressure should be between 40 and 60 psi. I have spoken with the neighbors and they say that they think their pressure is also very low (although they have not messured it).

So my question is what can I do about this.

Thanks for any suggestions,
Steve

A booster pump might work if there is more water to be had through the pipe feeding your home. Do you know what size the pipe is?

bob...

speedbump said:

A booster pump might work if there is more water to be had through the pipe feeding your home. Do you know what size the pipe is?

bob...

Click to expand...

From the street is a 1" pipe. That is imediately reduced to 3/4 copper once it get inside the house. That 3/4 is run up to the various drops for the various fixtures where it is reduced again to 1/2. This reduction to 1/2" is done for every fixture including outside hose bibs (but excluding the water heater).

When you say a booster pump, would I also need a bladder tank?

Thanks,
Steve

There are different ways of doing it. The bladder tank with check valve would be the best. The easy way is with a flow switch, but you might be cycling the pump a lot more. A 1/2hp jet pump would be the best bet and I would try to draw from the 1" line and pressure and pressurize the 3/4" pipe.

bob...

speedbump said:

There are different ways of doing it. The bladder tank with check valve would be the best. The easy way is with a flow switch, but you might be cycling the pump a lot more. A 1/2hp jet pump would be the best bet and I would try to draw from the 1" line and pressure and pressurize the 3/4" pipe.

bob...

Click to expand...

Can you recomend a good tank and pump (both size and manufacturer). My home is a 3600 sq/ft. with 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths. Also could you fully describe the plumbing for the "booster" system.

Thanks,
Steve

You might want to go with a little bigger pump with your house. Maybe the SFH 75 or SFH100.

Remember you can only get a boost if the pressure is low but there is actually more water in that pipe to get which in turn will give the boost from the pump. With the tank, you will always have more pressure at first, but if the feed can't keep up with the pumps demand, the pressure might go back to almost normal.

You will need a check valve also, 1" will be the correct size.

bob...

speedbump said:

You might want to go with a little bigger pump with your house. Maybe the SFH 75 or SFH100.

Remember you can only get a boost if the pressure is low but there is actually more water in that pipe to get which in turn will give the boost from the pump. With the tank, you will always have more pressure at first, but if the feed can't keep up with the pumps demand, the pressure might go back to almost normal.

You will need a check valve also, 1" will be the correct size.

bob...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. It seams as though that will be a fairly expensive fix. Can you tell me how that pump/tank would compare to this one http://www.watergeneral.com/product07.aspx about 3/4 of the way down the page part# FP4815TK10. It appears as though this pump is designed to be used without a tank if thats what one wants to do. Also this tank seams very small. Any thoughts on this unit?

Thanks
Steve

Those Chinese pumps are great if you only need it to last 6 months or so.

bob...

speedbump said:

Those Chinese pumps are great if you only need it to last 6 months or so.

bob...

Click to expand...

Ok so how do I go about determining what size of tank I need?

Also can the pumps you suggested be run without a tank...is that an advisable setup?
Thanks,
Steve

The tank could be any size. The determining factor would be, does the booster pump actually boost the pressure to an adequate level once the tank is empty. I would try the pump first just to see what result you get. After that you can use a flow switch to turn the pump on or use a tank and pressure switch. The problem with the flow switch is the frequency of starts the motor may experience. If you were careful to not turn on/off faucets too frequently, the motor would be fine.

If you want to go with a tank and switch because the pump isn't doing as well as you would like, you must remember that the largest bladder tank on the market only physically holds 40 gallons of water. This would be a 315 gallon tank, so with a 42 gallon tank you actually get 6 gallons.

bob...