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Hello,
Since moving into a different house we have had an issue with the mains water low flow which is so bad the shower running off combi boiler will turn to a trickle if anything else is using water e.g. toilet cistern, washing machine etc. I also can barely use my pressure washer as the garden tap can't supply enough for it.
Bear with me I'll detail what i've found/done so far.
1) First thing I noticed when we moved in was the stop tap on the meter under the pavement had moved so that you couldn't turn it off, contacted water company and they had it replaced with a modern 1/4 turn plastic one. I had hopes the old one wasn't fully opened but this made no difference.
2) Water company sent "a guy" out to test flow, he took off the meter and put a tap straight on it and there was loads of flow. Visually it was obviously a lot more than what I get in the house. I can't remember the figures but it was basically maxing out the little measuring device they have where the water pours out the side. Ok so good pressure up to that point.
3) Replaced our internal stop tap with a new one. Once removed, the old one it was gunked up with plumbers mate or something and the inlet side was 3/4 blocked. Brilliant I thought that must be the cause. No change. Balls!
4) I then bought a water pressure gauge - measured static 3 bar at the garden tap. Not bad but good enough as far as I understand?
5) I then measured flow at the garden tap so I could put a number on it - 6.5LPM consistently, across multiple measurements at different times of day.
6) I then put a hose straight onto the outlet side of the internal stop tap to measure flow there in case there was some blockage in our internal pipework - again 6.5LPM.
7) I then removed the internal stopcock completely and measured flow directly from the mains pipe (20 or maybe 21mm external diameter black plastic pipe) where it was slightly better at around 7.75LPM (makes sense as it's not having to go through any 15mm copper pipe or bends).
Just to see if there was any obvious blockage I shoved some stiff washing line wire down the mains line and gave it a good wiggle around. Each time I got to around 5m before it seemed to come to a stop. However there was a lot of friction at that point so hard to say if it was a definite stop or just too much friction for the wire to take without buckling. This would take it to roughly just outside the exterior wall of the house.
By process of elimination it seems the issue must be between my stop tap and the mains meter, right?
Now this is where it gets weird.
When I turned everything back on - loads of flow. It was obvious visually but I measured twice at the garden tap and got 9.75 and 9.5LPM. However, the flow doesn't stay that high! Over the course of a few hours of normal use, it will drop back down to 6.5LPM again.
The same thing happened when I first changed the stop tap, and when I have turned the water off other times I have also thought the flow seemed better. However as I wasn't measuring flow back then I didn't think too much of it. I've not managed to narrow it down to whether it's the mains stop tap or the internal stop tap which does it.
So, what gives! I am not a plumber but I am absolutely stumped. Why would turning off the stop tap increase flow, but only temporarily?
My next step was to possibly dig up the water main in the front garden to see if it is plastic all the way or whether it goes into lead (house is 1930's) somewhere between the two (for some reason).
Since moving into a different house we have had an issue with the mains water low flow which is so bad the shower running off combi boiler will turn to a trickle if anything else is using water e.g. toilet cistern, washing machine etc. I also can barely use my pressure washer as the garden tap can't supply enough for it.
Bear with me I'll detail what i've found/done so far.
1) First thing I noticed when we moved in was the stop tap on the meter under the pavement had moved so that you couldn't turn it off, contacted water company and they had it replaced with a modern 1/4 turn plastic one. I had hopes the old one wasn't fully opened but this made no difference.
2) Water company sent "a guy" out to test flow, he took off the meter and put a tap straight on it and there was loads of flow. Visually it was obviously a lot more than what I get in the house. I can't remember the figures but it was basically maxing out the little measuring device they have where the water pours out the side. Ok so good pressure up to that point.
3) Replaced our internal stop tap with a new one. Once removed, the old one it was gunked up with plumbers mate or something and the inlet side was 3/4 blocked. Brilliant I thought that must be the cause. No change. Balls!
4) I then bought a water pressure gauge - measured static 3 bar at the garden tap. Not bad but good enough as far as I understand?
5) I then measured flow at the garden tap so I could put a number on it - 6.5LPM consistently, across multiple measurements at different times of day.
6) I then put a hose straight onto the outlet side of the internal stop tap to measure flow there in case there was some blockage in our internal pipework - again 6.5LPM.
7) I then removed the internal stopcock completely and measured flow directly from the mains pipe (20 or maybe 21mm external diameter black plastic pipe) where it was slightly better at around 7.75LPM (makes sense as it's not having to go through any 15mm copper pipe or bends).
Just to see if there was any obvious blockage I shoved some stiff washing line wire down the mains line and gave it a good wiggle around. Each time I got to around 5m before it seemed to come to a stop. However there was a lot of friction at that point so hard to say if it was a definite stop or just too much friction for the wire to take without buckling. This would take it to roughly just outside the exterior wall of the house.
By process of elimination it seems the issue must be between my stop tap and the mains meter, right?
Now this is where it gets weird.
When I turned everything back on - loads of flow. It was obvious visually but I measured twice at the garden tap and got 9.75 and 9.5LPM. However, the flow doesn't stay that high! Over the course of a few hours of normal use, it will drop back down to 6.5LPM again.
The same thing happened when I first changed the stop tap, and when I have turned the water off other times I have also thought the flow seemed better. However as I wasn't measuring flow back then I didn't think too much of it. I've not managed to narrow it down to whether it's the mains stop tap or the internal stop tap which does it.
So, what gives! I am not a plumber but I am absolutely stumped. Why would turning off the stop tap increase flow, but only temporarily?
My next step was to possibly dig up the water main in the front garden to see if it is plastic all the way or whether it goes into lead (house is 1930's) somewhere between the two (for some reason).