Water Pressure , what's it like in your area ?

[worgeordie]

This is for people getting water from PWA , not from their own wells etc.

when I moved into our house quite a few years ago now , the water pressure was decent,

now in last few years it is really bad , I can pee harder ,than its coming out the pipe , we

have to use a pump all the time to increase the pressure ,for washing machine , getting

to roof for Solar water heater, even just watering the plants.

 

It would seem the amount of outlets the PWA has to service has increased immensely,

new houses , condos shops ,etc, a new house built a couple of years ago , opposite ours

has 11 bathrooms ! , it would seem the PWA has not kept up with the pumping capacity

in relation to increasing number of customers it must have daily , so everybody is just

getting a little bit ?  what  is  the pressure like in your area ?

 

regards worgeordie  

 

  

[Robin]

here n Phayao, the  official supply has been useless for years.  Water authority has kept on adding consumers wit no regard for pipe capacity, so pressure has been going down at peak times until virtually useless. it seems that they cannot see that 1 4 ins dia. pipe cannot supply20 or 30 of 1 ins pipe consumers.

Nobody else I have talked to can see what the problem is, so I have had to install private header tank, which fills when pressure is OK a night and we can use in the day.

[CMBob]

My townhouse gets PWA water on the west side (off of Sirimangkalajarn).  As for water pressure, I'm a bit puzzled by your complaint as I thought everybody/most had a water tank and the bulk of the pressure is provided by the pump next to the water tank.  If that pump didn't work, I have no idea what the water pressure would be but clearly a lot less than what we get.  Showers and sinks on all three floors have plenty of pressure (in fact, we have to be careful to not fully open the tap at the kitchen sink on the first floor as it would blow water all over the place). 

Edited June 9, 2023 by CMBob

[Dante99]

Pressure quite good in Mae Rim but that is far from the city.

[Dante99]

58 minutes ago, CMBob said:

(in fact, we have to be careful to not fully open the tap at the kitchen sink on the first floor as it would blow water all over the place). 

what pump are you using?

[CMBob]

4 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

what pump are you using?

Actually don't know.  All the townhouses around here have them. If it's important, I'll go look and see if there's a brand and other info on it.

[pagallim]

A all too familiar story.   Although our village doesn't get its water from the local water authority (it's a private lake which we pay via a meter each month), the same problem, going back a few years.   Low to non existent pressurer most of the time causing problems with washing machines, solar hot water system etc.   Enough was enough earlier this year, see this thread and post:

 

 

[Dante99]

35 minutes ago, CMBob said:

Actually don't know.  All the townhouses around here have them. If it's important, I'll go look and see if there's a brand and other info on it.

Since it makes such good pressure I thought it would be nice to know.  Not a big deal.

[KhaoYai]

Terrible to no existent during the daytime. I, like most in my area, use a tank that fills up overnight when there's a reasonable supply. My pressure is therefore dependent on a pump.

 

The tank has only ever run out when some clown thought it was funny to turn off the stop tap outside but I'm wise to that now.  When that has happened I've literally had no water because I suspect, my place is somewhere near the end of the line and as I say, daytimes there is no supply at all most days.

 

Thankfully my tank holds around 5 to 7 days needs.

[pgrahmm]

Here in San PaTong we just switched to the municipal water supply after years of getting it from catch, as catch can.....We have a pump & tank that we've used for the past few years because of low water pressure about 40/50% of the time.....

The new Muni system has provided adequate water since we adopted it....With few interruptions.....They installed new mainlines as well as lines & gauges at each house ....

I walk past the main valves / slash hydrants a few times every day walking the pooch....The PSI is a little over 20#....For a time it was closer to 30#..... I'm unsure if they have throttled back to meet the demand or it has equalized over time.....The 20# psi seems to give enough water to meet the mubaan's demand.....No need for pump/tank assist....

Each house in our area does have it's own well - which my wife uses for her gardening....

Only one time have we had to augment our tank from the well and that was from a major system failure somewhere upstream from us.....

Up until now, everywhere we lived in the Hang Dong area has had random water supply problems....

Our current situation is the most stable, adequate water supply in 10 years....

[gamb00ler]

This rental house has a tank and pump as is pretty much required in many places in Thailand.  It also has a faucet connected directly to the PWA line before it goes to the tank/pump.  I used to be able to use that faucet and get some decent pressure, but the pressure has been declining over the last few months.  I attributed that decline to the long dry spell that probably meant that more customers were using more water for lawns and gardens.  More demand will mean less pressure for all.

 

Some days the pressure is so low that not much water comes out of the hose when held at the top of the approx. 1.6m tall tank.

 

 

[CMBob]

2 hours ago, Dante99 said:

Since it makes such good pressure I thought it would be nice to know.  Not a big deal.

Checked it out, attaching photo of part of the water tank and pump (the cover is off the pump when the landlord did a repair a few years back....as the pump was leaking a bit).  The pump is (according to sticker on the cover) Hitachi GX Series, WT-P 250GX (don't know what that means).  

[couchpotato]

4 hours ago, Robin said:

here n Phayao, the  official supply has been useless for years.  Water authority has kept on adding consumers wit no regard for pipe capacity, so pressure has been going down at peak times until virtually useless. it seems that they cannot see that 1 4 ins dia. pipe cannot supply20 or 30 of 1 ins pipe consumers.

Nobody else I have talked to can see what the problem is, so I have had to install private header tank, which fills when pressure is OK a night and we can use in the day.

Which is the way the majority of people do  ie: 1000-2000 litre tank, 150-305 w pump (and sometimes a small pressure tank after the pump).

Relying on mains water for your house in most areas, does not give sufficient pressure for 24 hrs useage.

[lordblackader]

PWA supply in San Sai - we've also got a pump and water tank, the supply magically goes off 2-3 times a month and other times it's weak. The pump helps with the water pressure as we can tap into the tank + the tank when it just stops for no reason. It has gotten significantly worse this year. 

[Andrew Dwyer]

Our water pressure, moobahn in Ayutthaya, is very poor barely making it up to the shower ( bungalow ) and only suitable for cleaning teeth etc, also is regularly turned off on weekends or holidays during the day. We have a couple of emergency showers ( big plastic dustbins, one in the 3rd bathroom and one outside for power outages or pump problems) which we keep full.

Of course we have a pump ( Hitachi 150 ) and storage tank ( 700 litres ) but due to some nearby construction work found that the city water was being turned off nearly every day during the day. This meant we had to monitor water usage during the day, watering the garden, washing clothes or the car etc could mean we ran close to running out.

Due to the location of the storage tank it would be unsightly to increase the size so I linked another identical tank by piping from the drain plugs. Also noticed that by raising the float valve I gained another 50 litres in each tank, now storage is 1500 litres from 700 .

 

With no increase in water pressure forthcoming, headman for the moobahn assures us he frequently requests it, we have had to take measures to assure we have adequate storage.

 

[actonion]

Using the hose pipe to wash my car  the water from the gun slowed, thinking  the problem was the gun itself i bought a new one  which worked fine for 2/ 3 minutes, having  taken  off the new gun, and using my finger on the end of the hose  a lot of black slime  is coming out of  the  hose, obviously this crap is  blocking the gun, and maybe my in house taps too, which are running slow, but then again they have always run slow,  despite checking the  filters 

[The Fugitive]

Must be very fortunate. Our house and lock-up shop are 500 metres either side of local borehole which has 2 water towers. Supply and pressure continuous. No need for pumps or tanks. Last year the PWA replaced their cast iron mains with black plastic. Hasn't made any difference to us.

[pagallim]

11 hours ago, CMBob said:

Checked it out, attaching photo of part of the water tank and pump (the cover is off the pump when the landlord did a repair a few years back....as the pump was leaking a bit).  The pump is (according to sticker on the cover) Hitachi GX Series, WT-P 250GX (don't know what that means).  

The '250' in the serial number refers to the HP.   250hp is probably the minimum you need to service a two storey house.

[terryq]

11 minutes ago, pagallim said:

The '250' in the serial number refers to the HP.   250hp is probably the minimum you need to service a two storey house.

Have you any idea what a 250 HP pump looks like ?

 

The 250 in the pump model refers to the wattage.  250 W is about one third of a horse power.

Adequate for the job in hand.

[pagallim]

11 minutes ago, terryq said:

Have you any idea what a 250 HP pump looks like ?

 

The 250 in the pump model refers to the wattage.  250 W is about one third of a horse power.

Adequate for the job in hand.

You're right of course, I meant Watt rather than HP.   Here's the actual pump and specification:

 

https://www.hitachi-homeappliances.com/th-en/products/water-pump/shallow-well-tank/wt-p250gx2.html

[vinci]

Thailand water pressure is enough to drip into your water tank on ground level and that's about it, every house have their own pump

[Dante99]

On 6/9/2023 at 10:08 PM, CMBob said:

Checked it out, attaching photo of part of the water tank and pump (the cover is off the pump when the landlord did a repair a few years back....as the pump was leaking a bit).  The pump is (according to sticker on the cover) Hitachi GX Series, WT-P 250GX (don't know what that means).  

Thanks.  Not an uncommon pump but giving you great pressure in the kitchen and above.

[BritManToo]

On 6/9/2023 at 5:34 PM, worgeordie said:

what  is  the pressure like in your area ?

San Sai ........... not quite enough pressure when it works, but off for the day several times a month.

[VocalNeal]

On 6/9/2023 at 5:47 PM, Robin said:

t seems that they cannot see that 1 4 ins dia. pipe cannot supply20 or 30 of 1 ins pipe consumers.

Have we seen you at Peter's? 

 

With regard to your pipe quandary. I hope you don't teach math(s) or fluid dynamics.

[VocalNeal]

On 6/9/2023 at 10:30 PM, couchpotato said:

Relying on mains water for your house in most areas, does not give sufficient pressure for 24 hrs useage.

I live 750m and downhill from the local PWA water works but not in Chiang Mai. My pressure is good, so no pump.

 

For car washing I drive 1.3kms to the car wash and drink coffee. For motorbikes I ride 4kms to the coin-op car wash and cover my bikes with snow foam. 

[The Fugitive]

1 hour ago, VocalNeal said:

I live 750m and downhill from the local PWA water works but not in Chiang Mai. My pressure is good, so no pump.

 

For car washing I drive 1.3kms to the car wash and drink coffee. For motorbikes I ride 4kms to the coin-op car wash and cover my bikes with snow foam. 

Local car wash guy collects ours. Seems to do a good job. Tyre walls look like new! Charges 280 baht for cars and 180 baht for motos. Don't have a coin-op automatic car wash locally.  

[The Fugitive]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

San Sai ........... not quite enough pressure when it works, but off for the day several times a month.

How long have you had to go without water all day several times a month? Can understand if water main renewal works are in progress.  

[worgeordie]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

San Sai ........... not quite enough pressure when it works, but off for the day several times a month.

Yes, I am further down the road from you , nearer  Meechok Plaza , so I suppose

we must be getting our water from the same main  pipe ,it does not go off so much

now , as they changed all the clay pipes to plastic in the Moo Bahn , so the water

company is delivering the minimal amount of water to the house , and if you want

any pressure ,(2 story house) , you have to use a pump.....and do their job for them .....

 

regards Worgeordie

 

 

[BritManToo]

48 minutes ago, The Fugitive said:

How long have you had to go without water all day several times a month? Can understand if water main renewal works are in progress.  

8 years! 

[Dellboy218]

In Sanpakwan it started off ridiculously high, so much so I bought a pressure regulator which showed it at 4 to 5 bar.  These days it struggles to get over 1.  I use the tank and pump to water the garden.