poor flow rate

[df55555]

I have a mains pressure of about 5 bar but only 9L/SEc flow rate. I had this tested as I wanted a new boiler installed with a greater flow rate, but that would seem pointless unless I improve the incoming mains.

Thames water have pointed me at their developer services & these guys want £235 to supply a quote for replacing my supply feed, which is redeemable if I have the work carried out. They can only estimate it costing anywhere between £500 & £5k.

Can anyone advise me whether I have any options here.

Thanks

 

[surfing1975]

Locate incoming main and identify size of pipe. Then take flow rate from nearest point. Could be pipe work in the property causing probs. Where is your water coming from, mains, bore hole, spring?

 

[ChrisR]

9L/SEc flow rate

That's over a tonne of water a minute. I could tolerate that!
Perhaps you mean 9l/min? !!

Yep, check everything, it's often something daft like a part-closed stopcock, though if your supply pipe is old squashed 1/2 inch lead, I'd change it.
There is one cowboy who might answer on here who would want to sell you a nice expensive but simple Accumulator, which would go some way to solving your problem. If you have a spare large cupboard, cannot reasonably access or rerun the pipe, and limited actual volume demand, it might be worth considering from someone prepared to give you all the options.

 

[df55555]

Yup that would be 9l/min - tested from outside tap at back of house - so it could be the internal pipes effecting that. It's a mains feed from Thames Water & I'll be under the floorboards this weekend so I'll check what the mains pipe is exactly.

If we do need to replace an old incoming mains - is paying the estimate charge & hoping it's not astronomical our only option ?. The house is a 1950's build I believe.

 

[simond]

I am the cowboy ChrisR refers to. He can get rather jealous of people with more experience than him.

An accumulator will, from your measurements, massively increase the flow rate into your property without altering or upgrading the water main.

A decent installer will give you a written guarantee of their solution working, which is more than you will get from your water supplier.

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[ChrisR]

A decent installer will give you a written guarantee of their solution working, which is more than you will get from your water supplier.

Without the guarantee from the water supplier, the accumulator "solution" can't be guaranteed. Never mind, simple Simon.
Nice and shiny though, like the spurs.

Some of us have more than enough experience of a lot of different systems, and a lot of cowboys and their chosen, one-trick ponies.
Accumulators have their place but not EVERY time anyone mentions an application where one could possibly be sold.

It's quick and easy and very profitable to fit an accumulator.
It's quick and easy and NOT very profitable to check the stopcocks are fully open. Simon would never go there.

 

[simond]

It's quick and easy and NOT very profitable to check the stopcocks are fully open. Simon would never go there.

That is a lie. A simple barefaced lie, based upon your overwhelming desire to be right at all costs in this forum.

PS: I have not changed my views about accumulators. Unlike you, ChrisR; we can all look up your earlier posts on the matter over the last 24 months. That's the beauty of the internet, you can't change what you wrote 2 years back. 2 years ago accumulators didn't work, apparently.

 

[ChrisR]

Fine, show us all then, where you have suggested it, apart from where you conceded that "some wag" might do so.

2 years ago accumulators didn't work, apparently.

DO show us where.

I did find this:

Sun Sep 19, 2004 10:37 pm
You can't get more out of a cylinder than you put in - an accumulator doesn't break that rule but it does maintain a better-than-mains flow for a limited period/volume.

I have no problem being wrong, but the laws of physics, cowboys and incompetent engineers haven't changed.

The first accumulator I used was in about 1981. It was for a friend's riding stable where the supply was by a field's length of garden hose. They wanted some pressure to wash boots and fill buckets. I used one about 20 litres from a heating system, which was of course wrong. I wonder how long before it went rusty.
Apart from getting the material right, I'd do the same again.

 

[Razor900]

Recently client asked me to look at his supply 6 l/m at kitchen cold tap, checked next doors 18 l/m at kitchen cold tap renewed clients pipework and stopcock inside the property got 22 l/m at same outlet would love to have seen the old pipework under the screed.

Moral always check the simple things first I'm sure ChrisR knows that accumulators are very widely used in commercial applications and they have a place in domestic plumbing as less water gets stored.

 

[df55555]

Just to follow up I have replaced all of the old internal pipework from the mains - which was an old lead pipe.
I now have over 20 l/m flow rate - tested using a flow cup measure from the outside tap at the back of the house. All taps etc are noticeably better and with our old boiler I can't get the water hot enough - so we have enough flow for an uprated boiler.

The mains tap in the street is only half turned on - question about this. If the tap is not fully open will we get a reduced flow rate & higher pressure. Reasoning being that the water is being forced through a narrower opening restricting the amount coming through & therefore increasing the pressure ?