How to increase water pressure to shower?

[thailand49]

@thailand 49,

pressure switch, anti-clockwise is increase in pressure! They write "do not adjust" so do not adjust, unless you have the right measurement equipment, and you know what you are doing!

@smccolley, I noticed several times that Thai plumbers do not deburr tubes after cutting. The decrease of surface reduces square (not sure if this is right English) but a small burr inside a tube is a huge resistance. And the diameter increase after the burr is even a bigger resistance. Elbows are better then knees, bending the tube self reduces resistance, use as less as possible connections, T-junctions, changes from diameter.

Arjen.

.

You do what you want to do? The shop I purchase these units and the guy told me you can adjust them when the pressure is too low. The switch are set just in general depending on the type of pump and power you have it does not compensated for the number of places you need to deliver the water. My house in Thailand I have two kitchen inside outside, 3 bathrooms throughout my property and six water outlets throughout my property, I have 2 washing machine inside my house and 3 more outside along with a water machine. I needed consistent pressure in all location so I was taught just to simple turn the screw until I got the desire pressure in my problem area!

Now it works for me my problem is solved and I didn't need all the technical stuff you are talking about nor did I have to go to some technical school to know what I was doing.

Edited December 9, 2014 by thailand49

[CGW]

How much do you want to do, You could also fit an expansion tank next to your pump, remove the Psi regulater from the pump and install on the expansion tank, making sure you have a good head of air, increase the Psi reg to max and you will have more pressure! the new inverter pumps "do away" with the need for an expansion tank.

[thailand49]

@thailand 49,

pressure switch, anti-clockwise is increase in pressure! They write "do not adjust" so do not adjust, unless you have the right measurement equipment, and you know what you are doing!

@smccolley, I noticed several times that Thai plumbers do not deburr tubes after cutting. The decrease of surface reduces square (not sure if this is right English) but a small burr inside a tube is a huge resistance. And the diameter increase after the burr is even a bigger resistance. Elbows are better then knees, bending the tube self reduces resistance, use as less as possible connections, T-junctions, changes from diameter.

Arjen.

.

You do what you want to do? The shop I purchase these units and the guy told me you can adjust them when the pressure is too low. The switch are set just in general depending on the type of pump and power you have it does not compensated for the number of places you need to deliver the water. My house in Thailand I have two kitchen inside outside, 3 bathrooms throughout my property and six water outlets throughout my property, I have 2 washing machine inside my house and 3 more outside along with a water machine. I needed consistent pressure in all location so I was taught just to simple turn the screw until I got the desire pressure in my problem area!

Now it works for me my problem is solved and I didn't need all the technical stuff you are talking about nor did I have to go to some technical school to know what I was doing.

You had no idea what you were doing, you have no clue about your pressure, when you have to many tapping points, the capacity from your pump is to small, this has nothing to do with the pressure, but with flow. It looks maybe better, because your tubing system works as a spring. The tubes get bigger by a to higher pressure, and equalizes a bit your water flow at a tapping point. if you are happy with is, it is OK, do not give it as a general advise...

From all your technical B.S. and being stubborn you sound like you are talking about plumbing in the West.. here in Thailand in my case and in everyone else case is the pipes are majority under ground buried usually in cement or behind concrete walls. You speak of tapping points etc.. what is a common person to do dig everything up and redo it the way you are suggesting? Using some common sense MAN!

Reality is this and please do not come back with all your technical B.S. that does not have any reality to the situation! And it is this... whatever I lack by not knowing what I'm doing it has WORKED! your attitude and conversation is like saying to a person who has actually done something, seen the result and then tell them " you do not know what you are talking about or doing " maybe I don't but I needed pressure just like this guy post so I was told to turn the screw on my 375 Horsepower pump and guess what fellas, that deliver the necessary pressure I was not getting to the kitchen sink at the other end of the house! Simple did not cost me a Baht! did not have to do all the B.S. stuff you are citing! and did not have to dig up the house either!

It worked for me! Now as for you! pack your ego in and call it a day and move on!

[beau thai]

OP, you tried several shower heads including expensive ones

I recall reading another TV poster with the same problem who imported a low-flow shower head. I googled them and shopped around here including at a place with over 100 different shower heads but they had never heard of low flow showers, so not sure you will find in Thailand. If you do please post on here again..

I dont know how successful it would be to have one sent from abroad or whether it would be 'Lost in Thailand' which is why I havent tried, but maybe next time a friend is coming over they can put one in their suitcase for me.

Seems easier than some of the other solutions - if it works.

[CharlieH]

Flame post removed

[Guitar God]

I have a new house, new pipes, new pump and a 6000w on demand heater and the water pressure in the upstairs shower is low, AND the water's not as warm as where I used to live that had a 2500w heater. It was one of the highest powered and most expensive water heaters and I expected better.

I also asked for the biggest pump possible and the builder put in a small one, even though I would have been charged more for a bigger one so he wasn't just being cheap. I asked why he didn't put in a bigger pump, he said the PVC pipes would burst. The pressure in the kitchen, nearest the pump doesn't seem anywhere high enough to burst pic pipes, even if a new pump had twice the pressure. All the pvc lines and joints are incased in concrete and terminate even with the wall with a threaded metal connection. How could pvc lines in concrete burst? What are the bigger pumps for , copper plumbing?

[IMHO]

I have a new house, new pipes, new pump and a 6000w on demand heater and the water pressure in the upstairs shower is low, AND the water's not as warm as where I used to live that had a 2500w heater. It was one of the highest powered and most expensive water heaters and I expected better.

I also asked for the biggest pump possible and the builder put in a small one, even though I would have been charged more for a bigger one so he wasn't just being cheap. I asked why he didn't put in a bigger pump, he said the PVC pipes would burst. The pressure in the kitchen, nearest the pump doesn't seem anywhere high enough to burst pic pipes, even if a new pump had twice the pressure. All the pvc lines and joints are incased in concrete and terminate even with the wall with a threaded metal connection. How could pvc lines in concrete burst? What are the bigger pumps for , copper plumbing?

There are different grades of blue PVC pipe in Thailand:

5.0 PVC can handle 70PSI

8.5 PVC can handle 120PSI

13.5 PVC can handle 190PSI

5.0 is hard to find, so unlikely they used this unless they really went out of their way to save money on materials. 8.5 is what's typically going to be used, unless you have specified you want 13.5.

Either way, even the best household water pumps don't exceed 50 PSI, so bursting pipes shouldn't be an issue unless there's something else going on.

One final note: you probably don't need more pressure, but rather, more flow rate.

[lopburi3]

If the house builder really knows it means they did a very bad job. But they can fail if connections not tight, and Thai like to fit with glue rather than measure long and trim down on corners. Being in cement no way to fix other than new surface plumbing. Home pumps like Grundfos can go above 60 psi and indeed can break poor plumbing.

[Guitar God]

As far as I can tell, everything is 8.5 PVC. It wasn't the builders who advised against a bigger pump, it was the developer/general contractor. I don't think it was because she knew they did a crappy job, The same crew built her house too. I think she just wanted to avoid any blame if anything did go wrong and decided low flow/low pressure for us was better than taking a chance that a bigger pump would cause problems.

Don't they use air chambers in the pipes here to work as a hydraulic shock absorber to avoid "water hammer" and a quick increase in pressure when turning off a distant tap?

I don't see any visible. Couldn't I just add an upright pipe after the pump before the line goes inside the house, or does it need to be a ways from the pump to work properly?

[Guitar God]

Does anyone know if an air chamber (short piece of vertical pipe on a horizontal line which has air in it) would work on a PCV plumbing system to act as a shock absorber to reduce the increase in pressure when you shut off a tap? It's common in copper pipe plumbing to prevent pipes banging when a tap is shut off quickly or a wash machine relay closes. I am getting a bigger pump but don't want to have problems with the pipes.

[BillyBobThai]

A simple expansion tank

is easy to build. Take a 2 foot section of 3" blue pvc pipe. Cap one end, drill a hole for a bicycle tube air filler stem. Insert a bicycle tube into 3" pipe with air filler stem thru hole you just drilled. The one I built I put a rubber gasket on the inside with and extra nut the was coated with silicone. On the outside I put another gasket that was coated with silicone caulk and another nut to tighten. Put a pipe reducer on the 3" pipe down to whatever is needed to fit your water pipe. Bicycle tube needs to filled with air up to about 20-30 psi. A small 1/4" valve can be fitted on the bottom and top of 3" pipe to allow for draining as it can become water logged.

[Guitar God]

I ordered a couple water hammer, arrester tees off Amazon to put on the washing machine and dishwasher. All the toilets turn off gradually and the RO machine has a very low flow rate so I'm not concerned about them.

I built an air chamber as described above but popped the inner tube filling it up the first time, before it even moved the pressure gauge because part of the tube from the 3" pipe developed a hemorrhoid trying to excrete itself through the 3/4" reducer. I built a new one and didn't inflate it as much. I thought of putting that one by the pump outside but I've read that it should be installed as close as possible to the devices with the solenoid operated valves. I'm not sure how much good it would do if it was next to the pump and the furthest away.

To try to sort out my low pressure, low flow issue with the shower, jacuzzi and faucets for watering the lawn, I bought a Hitachi WM-P750GX750w constant pressure, inverter pump. It's supposed to have 20% higher output and constant pressure at all faucets. 40% more efficient and 280% more expensive so it's probably got a 50 year payback time so I hope it lives up to its promises and it give me the kind of shower experience I'm expecting. I'm bored with waiting a half hour to fill the bathtub.

It's being installed tomorrow so I shall soon know if it's going to blow my pipe fittings apart.

Next problem will be lower water heater temps with what I'm hoping will be a higher flow rate. At least it's heating up here so the well water in the tank is warmer going into the heater than it was a couple weeks ago.