What Water Pump And Filter

[whatawonderfulday]

OK this question is three-fold.

Firstly for a 2 storey house 4 beds 4 bathrooms, what flow rate of water pump would you reccommend for an average family and does anybody have a reccommended pump manufacturer ?. Bearing in mind I require the highest reliabilty with minimal noise. Max head will be 8 meters.

Secondly as this is a new property I am considering installing a whole house water filter ( before the pump ) so hence the through-put capacity will need to match the pump duty. Has anybody had experience of a good filtration system and found an installer in Bangkok please ?

Thirdlythe house is built with the usual 1 pipe water supply system. I am looking into Solar heating for HW but obviously will need a 2 pipe system to allow effective mixing - anybody else gone down this road and what, if any, are the pitfalls ?

[Beardog]

OK this question is three-fold.

Firstly for a 2 storey house 4 beds 4 bathrooms, what flow rate of water pump would you reccommend for an average family and does anybody have a reccommended pump manufacturer ?. Bearing in mind I require the highest reliabilty with minimal noise. Max head will be 8 meters.

Secondly as this is a new property I am considering installing a whole house water filter ( before the pump ) so hence the through-put capacity will need to match the pump duty. Has anybody had experience of a good filtration system and found an installer in Bangkok please ?

Thirdlythe house is built with the usual 1 pipe water supply system. I am looking into Solar heating for HW but obviously will need a 2 pipe system to allow effective mixing - anybody else gone down this road and what, if any, are the pitfalls ?

You might get the most benefit from a Grundufos unit. They put out a lot of liter per minute & are about as quiet as a Mitsubishi or Hitachi. I have heard Lop3 say he believes the noise level is even less than the Mits. & Hitachi. We use Mitsubishi with no problems but Grundafos does better with a lot of lift to second story units & up. Another concern would be is this from a well or bore hole or county water supply. If it is from a main water supply a Mitsubishi or Hitachi would work fine.The Mitsubishi 300 is a great pump with a lot of driving power. our 300 powers 4 rai worth of irrigation & the 200 pump powers the tank to the house.Soon to be 2 houses.

You can use off brand pumps as well, but I like mainstream units for easy replacement pump parts later on(& usually with the top dog units it is way later on!)

Solar is very expensive in lOS. There are several threads on this subject if you search you will find a lot of good info.

Main point is the cost- unless you build it yourself. as for a water filtration system We used delivered bottled water & would have to wait till I hit 107 years old to pay for the filtration system (the cost of the filters.) It is only 30 baht a big bottle delivered. You should get more help & there is also extensive info under water filtration in the search field.

Edited February 19, 2009 by Beardog

[technocracy]

2 storey, 4 beds, 4 bathrooms - sames as mine - all I can say is buy a Grundfos MQ3/45 and you'll never regret it.

Provide constant and nigh on instant 60psi water everywhere - no problems with using more than 1 tap or shower at the same time either it handles the flow no problem.

[dotcom]

Yep agree 100%.

I found the dealer at Seacon. I guess they cost about 12,000 baht.

The reason they are so good is 2 fold.

1 - It's a 2 stage centrifugal - makes high volue & high pressure.

2 - has a sophisticated control unit - which prevents run dry & lets you adjust cut in & cut out pressures.

The dealer is up on the furniture floor (3?) near the central atrium on the tesco side. It's a filter shop.

[Artisi]

2 storey, 4 beds, 4 bathrooms - sames as mine - all I can say is buy a Grundfos MQ3/45 and you'll never regret it.

Provide constant and nigh on instant 60psi water everywhere - no problems with using more than 1 tap or shower at the same time either it handles the flow no problem.

2 storey, 4 beds, 4 bathrooms - sames as mine - all I can say is buy a Grundfos MQ3/45 and you'll never regret it.

Provide constant and nigh on instant 60psi water everywhere - no problems with using more than 1 tap or shower at the same time either it handles the flow no problem.

Have been checking the claims of the Grunfos MQ 3/45 pump unit.

This unit is not capable of generating 60 PSI unless it has an inlet pressure to the pump of 23 PSI - maybe posible if connected directly to the town mains or feed from an overhead tank at least 50 ft above the pump.

At the pumps best point in terms of efficiency it is only capable of 3m3/hr (13 USGPM) and 26m head / pressure ( 37 PSI).

Even at its highest discharge pressure it is way short of 60PSI.

Have attached a copy of the pumps performance curve for those who are interested.

[Artisi]

Correction to the above - it must have been late at night - as I confused metres of head with PSI.

The pump can generate approx 60 PSI at low flow but at useful flow rates the pressure is much lower.

Edited March 21, 2009 by Artisi

[kamalabob2]

Things must be less expensive in Buriram Province. 12 baht for the large drinking water delivered, not 30 baht.

I think some sort of "whole house" water filtering is warranted if you have "bad" municipal water quality. I would like to think the water filters (again Mazuma or similar brands vary greatly depending on the shop you buy a specific model) make for a better shower experience, better water for washing dishes, better water in the clothes washing machine and dish washing machine. We still drink the 12 baht water, but I would like to think our "filtered water" is cleaner than untreated municipal water.

Our builder was wise to have the "yard watering faucets" on a "branch" water supply BEFORE the water "main" pipe goes into our water pump, filter, storage and "pressure tank".

Grundfos units are available "Up Country" and Mitsubishi has much larger water pumps than you would normally see at Big C or Home Mart. I had a Mitsubishi I bought many years ago for our rental house, but in our new home which has a 2nd story I selected the energy efficient Hitachi INVERTER pump.

I would like to think that Bangkok has "pump shops" that are not in a high overhead air conditioned Mall, which might have staff to come to your home and make product suggestions, might have far lower prices than the Seacon Square Mall operation. In Buriram we received the lowest price, excellent installation and prompt "after the sale" service from an Independent Pump and Tool shop that sells, installs and services municipal water supplies in several Provinces. The price for brand name specific model pumps was far lower at the Independent shop than any chain store or store in a high overhead Mall. The 500 liter "pressure tank" is the "game changer" in how OFTEN the pumps are activated. We can go hours without hearing a pump, even with water usage from many sinks, appliances and sanitary ware.

Good luck on solar water heating. Probably possible in Bangkok, check out one of the 90 baht home MAGAZINES such as ROOM, which have numerous advertisements for Building items you did not realize are readily available in Thailand.

There are HUNDREDS of home building product booths at the late April, early May 2009 Architect Expo at Impact Exhibit Hall in Bangkok. You can see numerous water pumps from all the major manufacturers in one place and last year several booths had solar lighting on display and for sale. I recall all the major water filter companies had booths and plenty of printed literature is in English at this convention. Quite often the staff in the booths had good English language skills. Maybe not the Pammastic Paint female spokes-models.

In my experience I worked hard on what diameter thick walled blue pvc pipe was for our water mains and interior water pipes, BUT the connection to a water filter might be smaller than what the other pipes were. In our area the Municipal Water Supply offers more than one size of WATER METER and the size of the pipes both in and out of the water METER can vary.

Here are photos from one year ago at our "Up Country" home. A made in Italy Square D brand sensor/controller on the grey steel tank is the only item that has malfunctioned in one year. The Buriram shop did an immediate replacement of the Square D product. We have paid to have a shop with the lowest bid empty and replace the carbon, etc. in the Mazuma filter tanks. The other two water filter tanks use a 200 baht paper-like filter which can be cleaned about once a week and then after about two months each is replaced.

You need a good level of water pressure to activate water HEATERS on your 2nd floor.