Converting to main pressure and gas.

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Paul1977

5039 posts

Uber Geek

#1600015 28-Jul-2016 09:13

I don't like a "cut you in half" shower anyway, and even with the shower on full cold ours doesn't come close to that, so I don't think the mains pressure in my area would be anywhere near what it is in some areas.

I might do a rough guesstimate and time how long it takes to fill a 2 litre bottle from the cold tap to give me an idea of the mains pressure.

mdf

3512 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1600019 28-Jul-2016 09:22

Do you have a shower mixer or separate taps? You will (very likely) have a flow restrictor for cold on a mixer, so full cold on a shower is not necessarily equivalent to your mains pressure.

Paul1977

5039 posts

Uber Geek

#1600031 28-Jul-2016 09:36

mdf: Do you have a shower mixer or separate taps? You will (very likely) have a flow restrictor for cold on a mixer, so full cold on a shower is not necessarily equivalent to your mains pressure.

It's a mixer. But it's old fashioned separate taps in the laundry, so presumably I can get a good guess on the pressure from there (or even an outdoor tap)?

allio

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1600113 28-Jul-2016 11:28

mdf: Do you have a shower mixer or separate taps? You will (very likely) have a flow restrictor for cold on a mixer, so full cold on a shower is not necessarily equivalent to your mains pressure.

What's the deal with these? I've moved into a new house and the water pressure in the shower (Methven Satinjet with a mixer) is abysmal. Full cold is very weak, full hot is very weak, halfway in between is barely adequate. To get anything resembling pressure I need to have the temperature several degrees colder than I'd like. However the cold tap in the bathtub has plenty of power. The hot tap is average - about what I'd expect given we have a low-pressure HWC downstairs. Much less pressure than the cold, but a lot better than the pathetic drips we get out of the shower head.

I've been considering converting to gas hot water to solve this problem, but is it possible the problem is in the shower mixer instead?

Lastman

306 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1600144 28-Jul-2016 12:34

allio:
mdf: Do you have a shower mixer or separate taps? You will (very likely) have a flow restrictor for cold on a mixer, so full cold on a shower is not necessarily equivalent to your mains pressure.

What's the deal with these? I've moved into a new house and the water pressure in the shower (Methven Satinjet with a mixer) is abysmal. Full cold is very weak, full hot is very weak, halfway in between is barely adequate. To get anything resembling pressure I need to have the temperature several degrees colder than I'd like. However the cold tap in the bathtub has plenty of power. The hot tap is average - about what I'd expect given we have a low-pressure HWC downstairs. Much less pressure than the cold, but a lot better than the pathetic drips we get out of the shower head.

I've been considering converting to gas hot water to solve this problem, but is it possible the problem is in the shower mixer instead?

Could be or it might need a clean out. A static pressure test would tell you what your cold pressure is upstairs. A low pressure cylinder will have a pressure reducing valve (unless you have a header tank) which will affect the flow and upstairs will have less pressure than downstairs.

allio

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1600170 28-Jul-2016 13:50

Lastman:

Could be or it might need a clean out. A static pressure test would tell you what your cold pressure is upstairs. A low pressure cylinder will have a pressure reducing valve (unless you have a header tank) which will affect the flow and upstairs will have less pressure than downstairs.

Thanks, useful information. What I take from that is that either re-jigging the shower or replacing the low pressure cylinder would improve things, but I'd likely need to do both to get a great shower.

I might do a bucket-fill test as a cheap substitute for a static pressure test. Just from sight the cold pressure is excellent upstairs and down. The kitchen tap is actually far too strong - if I accidentally open it to full then water ends up on the ceiling.

mdf

3512 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1600321 28-Jul-2016 19:23

allio:

mdf: Do you have a shower mixer or separate taps? You will (very likely) have a flow restrictor for cold on a mixer, so full cold on a shower is not necessarily equivalent to your mains pressure.

What's the deal with these? I've moved into a new house and the water pressure in the shower (Methven Satinjet with a mixer) is abysmal. Full cold is very weak, full hot is very weak, halfway in between is barely adequate. To get anything resembling pressure I need to have the temperature several degrees colder than I'd like. However the cold tap in the bathtub has plenty of power. The hot tap is average - about what I'd expect given we have a low-pressure HWC downstairs. Much less pressure than the cold, but a lot better than the pathetic drips we get out of the shower head.

I've been considering converting to gas hot water to solve this problem, but is it possible the problem is in the shower mixer instead?

I am not a plumber, but had always assumed that it's because one part hot + one part cold = two parts warm. But one part hot + 27 parts cold = blood curdling scream from the poor unfortunate in the shower. I think the mixer is therefore probably functioning as designed.

Definitely mains pressure hot and cold lead to a better shower, IMHO. However, mains pressure can vary too. We had a Rinnai Infinity mains pressure hot system at our old place, but it was just okay until we took out the old galvanised main pipe to the street and replaced it with a new plastic one. Good mains pressure + Infinity + luxuriant wasteful shower head = world's greatest shower.

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Lastman

306 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1600564 29-Jul-2016 09:50

mdf:
allio:

mdf: Do you have a shower mixer or separate taps? You will (very likely) have a flow restrictor for cold on a mixer, so full cold on a shower is not necessarily equivalent to your mains pressure.

What's the deal with these? I've moved into a new house and the water pressure in the shower (Methven Satinjet with a mixer) is abysmal. Full cold is very weak, full hot is very weak, halfway in between is barely adequate. To get anything resembling pressure I need to have the temperature several degrees colder than I'd like. However the cold tap in the bathtub has plenty of power. The hot tap is average - about what I'd expect given we have a low-pressure HWC downstairs. Much less pressure than the cold, but a lot better than the pathetic drips we get out of the shower head.

I've been considering converting to gas hot water to solve this problem, but is it possible the problem is in the shower mixer instead?

I am not a plumber, but had always assumed that it's because one part hot + one part cold = two parts warm. But one part hot + 27 parts cold = blood curdling scream from the poor unfortunate in the shower. I think the mixer is therefore probably functioning as designed.

Definitely mains pressure hot and cold lead to a better shower, IMHO. However, mains pressure can vary too. We had a Rinnai Infinity mains pressure hot system at our old place, but it was just okay until we took out the old galvanised main pipe to the street and replaced it with a new plastic one. Good mains pressure + Infinity + luxuriant wasteful shower head = world's greatest shower.

A low pressure hot water system should be able to supply a perfectly reasonable shower as long as the cold has good pressure ie supply to the cylinder is consistent. Supply to the second floor might be asking a bit, though. Analogous to an electrical circuit there will be some component restricting the performance.

Huntakillaz

268 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1600683 29-Jul-2016 11:31

What about a heat pump hot water system instead of gas?

bfginger

1267 posts

Uber Geek

#1654913 20-Oct-2016 09:30

In most cases it doesn't make financial or practical sense to run hot water on bottled gas over electricity.

With population growth the mains water pressure is being driven much higher than it should in some areas.

Paul1977

5039 posts

Uber Geek

#1654922 20-Oct-2016 09:45

bfginger:

In most cases it doesn't make financial or practical sense to run hot water on bottled gas over electricity.

With population growth the mains water pressure is being driven much higher than it should in some areas.

Well, we've have our conversion done now and I couldn't be happier. Too early for me to comment on whether it works out cheaper than electricity (but that's not why we did it). In practical terms (for us) our hot water pressure is at least 5 times what it was and we have freed up the space where the old cylinder was. Easily the best $4000 we've spent on the house, I wish we did it years ago.

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