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I repiped my mixer shower last week and in my wisdom (and regs) used isolating valves on both pipes. I have noticed some reduction in flow and am toying with the idea of removing them.

I know you can only guess but what % reduction in flow do you think these valves are giving me? :confused:
 
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Fit a second set after the first then double the flow rate you had to start after which you can divide by four in order to calculate the flow loss you had before you fitted the first set that gave you the two meter piece of string loss you had in the first place.
 
Bore of a 15mm copper pipe is about 136.8mm², bore of a standard 15mm ballofix is about 44.2mm², so...

44.2 divided by 136.8 = 0.323

0.323 × 100 = 32.3%

So a standard 15mm ballofix has 32.3% of the bore of a 15mm pipe (taking the 15mm internal pipe diameter as 13.2mm to account for 0.9mm walls, and the internal diameter of a ballofix as 7.5mm, which it is), therefore reduction in flow is 67.7%, assuming water velocity does not change, which it might do.

HOWEVER, this is the reduction in flow through a pipe versus flow through a ballofix, as your shower almost certainly won't produce as much flow as an open 15mm pipe, the above doesn't give a truly accurate indication but it will give you an idea. The only way to calculate accurately is to use a flow gauge, measure flow with the standard ballofixes, then replace them for the full-bore ballofixes you should have used in the first place and re-measure.
 
Hmm I may have gone a bit overboard with that one, but it's an interesting study on ballofix restrictions
 
OK what I will do is measure the flow before and after I remove those pesky valves. I actually have 2 valves for each feed as it is zoned so may remove both.

Don't mention full flow valves either! :evil:
 

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