My friend's house has a water pressure problem. It's newly installed lotus shower head has water coming out from only half of it. We make sure all the valves are opened to their maximum and called in the water company to try to open the valve on the street. The water company guy opened the valve hole, but its too dirty, and he was unable do anything there. He tested the water pressure and found it was only 45, instead of 60.
He suggested using a water pump to increase pressure.

Now not sure if it is a rusty main pipe issue or if water pump can really resolve the problem. and can we use this pump?

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...6970_7738_7738

Thank you.

 

> The water company guy opened the valve hole, but it's too dirty,
> and he was unable do anything there.

Get it replaced. There is no point is dealing with stuff that doesn't work.


> He tested the water pressure and found it was only 45,
> instead of 60.

Who said that 60 psi is what it should be?


> Now not sure if it is a rusty main pipe issue or if water pump
> can really resolve the problem.

How was the pressure test conducted?
Is there a PRV?

First you need to figure what the problem is.
A good step would be to conduct proper pressure tests. The always results in having at least two readings. A reading like "45" is not useful for diagnostic purposes because it doesn't say under what conditions that pressure is present.


> and can we use this pump?
That's a low volume "toy" pump. You could use it, but it would not help.

 

It might involve too much work. They just did not want to do it now.

He tested with a kind of gauge and said the street has the similar pressure.

He mensioned 60 psi, and said the high could be 85.

Thank you for your answer.

 

> It might involve too much work. They just did not want to do it now.
My blackwhite view is that either equipment is unnecessary and should not be installed or it is necessary and should be maintained/repaired/replaced.


> He mentioned 60 psi,
For what?

> and said the high could be 85.
When could that be?

If he said the the city pressure varies between 45 and 85 psi at your location, I say that is unusual.

 

Then what is the normal pressure range? and how it is usually taken? Maybe, we misunderstood it. It is the first time for us to hear things like that.

 

> what is the normal pressure range?

You would have to ask someone who knows.
A narrow range like 70-75 psi is much more reasonable. It could vary from 45 at the top of a hill to 85 in a valley in the same city. But your house doesn't move around.


> and how it is usually taken?
One reading with zero flow (static pressure) and again with the bathtub running, perhaps two or three sinks.


In your case, you should take static pressure readings just before using the shower on a weekday.

 

I have a similar problem to this in my house. The house was built in '96 and we've lived in it for about 1 year. The water pressure has always been low. It's hardly enough to run a sprinkler outside and getting it to spray more than 3 feet. If you run more than just the shower you lose your pressure and if two showers are running, it's barely enough to keep the shower valve closed on both bathtubs.

I had the water company out and they said that as long as it got initial water pressure at a decent amount it wasn't their problem. They said to get a new pressure regulator valve. I replaced the pressure regulator valve and have similar results. I also thought it might be the water softener, but it has the same pressure problems even if I bypass the softener. A friend of mine with plumbing experience said it's problably because they only ran 3/4" pipe from the city line up to the house and it's limiting the pressure.

Is this true that 3/4" pipe coming into the house is not enough for the pressure? Is this something I need to fix or the water company? Any suggestions for further troubleshooting or am I just stuck to deal with low pressure until we move to another house.

Thanks,
Aaron C