water pressure booster pump

Gary Swart said:

You have verified a city water supply @ 50 psi, a 2" meter and a 2" supply line. I don't know the numbers myself, but I do know that you can get one heck of alot of water through this system. I do not know how many gpm all of you washers would require is all of them were filling at the same time, but I have to believe should have plenty of flow. For at least the 3rd time I will tell you that you problem is not low pressure. You have 50 psi regardless of the size of the pipe or meter and that is plenty of pressure. Much more pressure would be damaging to you equipment. Somewhere your supply is being restricted. If all of the valves are open, perhaps it is your water heaters.

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It may be low pressure or a restriction but, the estimated 50 psi by the water company guy will be static pressure not dynamic which will substantially reduce the 50 psi when all these washers are filling from a 2" line. His 50 psi is probably some CYA guess anyway.

All of us agree that he needs more gpm, at say a dynamic pressure not less than like 30 lbs..

These meters may be blocked if there are any screens in them.

Stevelee, get a pressure gauge at a hardware store that screws on a faucet tip or outside faucet and see what the pressure is when you are using your peak demand or when the problem starts. You can get one with a finger that records the highest psi, or not, for like $15.

I bought pressure gauge today and measured the end water line just before washers, cold line = 40psi, hot line = 42psi
Even though I did not measure the psi at entance point, but I guess the city pressure maybe around 45psi...
I called wascomat and they said the required pressure is 40~80psi...
So, that's why low flow(low pressure) happens at peak time...
I did not measure at peak time, but I guess it drops...

If you were using water but not much, that pressure will decrease at your peak demand usage. And when someone in the neighborhood uses water.

I'd go back to the water company and tell them they are below their 50 psi and see what they say. I'd also talk to the OTHERS upstairs and see what their opinion of the pressure is. They'll have .433 lbs/foot of height less than you do. I'd also talk to neighbors, enough complaints and the water company may actually do something to increase their pressure.

This is one of those applications where "real" constant pressure is a great advantage. I would set up a booster pump system that would maintain 60 PSI regardless of the flow required. If you know what the city pressure is during times when both the city and the laundry are a peak demand, then you can use this number to boost from. If you don't know that number, then I would do a CYA and plan on no more than 10 PSI coming from the city. With a constant pressure of 60 PSI to the machines, they will fill much faster. The customers will be able to do their laundry quicker. This will make for happy customers, and you can increase business by being able to run them in and out quicker.

If the city is trying to maintain 50, then during their peak demand you are probably getting 40 PSI. With losses through your meter, elbows, pipe, reductions, and solenoid valves, you will be luck to get 30 PSI. This causes the machines to fill slow and you to be unhappy. The city probably cannot increase pressure easily because they are still living in the dark ages and still using water towers. A water tower that is 115' tall will put out no more than 50 PSI. Unless you raise the height of the tower, you cannot easily increase pressure.

Here is a picture of a city water tower that was too short, and the toilets at a new school would not flush. It was going to cost about $200,000 for the city to make the water tower taller. We installed a Cycle Stop Valve controlled "constant pressure" booster pump system at the base of the tower that picks up water at 35 PSI and increases it to 50 PSI for delivery to the city. Had to redo the controls on a couple of big supply wells also but, the whole system prices was only about $20,000.

With this type system, we can boost pressure to the entire city, or just to your laundry.

is that a private tank? Its almost the same water tank in our town.

It is the City of Rochelle, Georgia.