Water pipe upgrade?

And if he has the UV ticket then ask him why he is installing an inferior hot water system requiring an annual service.
Only a fool would install one of these.
 
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We insist on minimum 25mm for new/replacement supplies. Most water co's charge the same for 25mm or 32mm connections.

If your water co has a lead replacement scheme then they may replace the pipe in the street free of charge.
 
I now have a lovely 32mm pipe connected to my unvented hot water tank

the bad news is it is joined to the Water companies stopcock with a short length of 15mm pipe which must defeat the object.

Plumber tells me this is all he can connect to the stop Cock and that I need to speak to water company about new stop cock.

Water Company tell me it will cost between £750 and £1500 which sounds a little steep.

The pipe that was in the ground was apparantly 1/2 inch galvanised steel
 
An accumulator would have saved you upgrading the pipe, stopcock etc and would not have cost you more than £1200 fitted.

It would also most likely have given a better performance than a 32mm main. It would have given water in the event of a disconnection/fault. It would not have been modulated by other users up the road.

This is the reason we never recommend upgrading the i/c main without making the customer clear that there may be no/little discernable improvement.

Sometimes internet forums are not the place to get your advice from; you don't know who is giving it, and you have no redress if it turns out to be wrong.
 
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Point taken but I only entered the forum as the pipe my builder and plumber were planning to instrall looked a little puney@ 20mm.

The pressure seems greatly improved as the old pipe was obviously due to be renewed and I wanted to get this done before laying my drive.

What's an Acumilator please?
 
the bad news is it is joined to the Water companies stopcock with a short length of 15mm pipe which must defeat the object....The pipe that was in the ground was apparantly 1/2 inch galvanised steel
You should have consulted with the Water company, as advised before. What size and material is their pipe from the main to your boundary? If it's lead or steel they might have replaced it free of charge.

As for the short piece of 15mm, this in itself won't have much effect on the flow, but if the Water company's pipe back to the main is the same size then that might make a big difference. It depends very much on the overall length involved.
 
The pressure and flow appear to have improved simply by replacing the old pipe and both are now quite impressive - most important advice to me right now is that the short length of 15mm (it's actually around 200mm long is this ok?) has little effect on the flow. Once I have installed all showers I'll see what performance is like when demand for hot and cold water at it's highest (impossible to test now yet) and consult the water company again if need be. I have been in touch with them already and the only department that seems interested are the new installations people who tell me it will cost money - potentially quite a lot of money - they seemed to skirt around the subject of lead replacement, I was told the only way they would consider changing a stopcock and upgrading the supply would be if there was a leak - or I could pay for a new installation myself - no less than £750. I was encouraged to fill out a form online and my situation would be assessed in 6 to 10 weeks! apparantly the water company is only obliged to deliver 1 bar at the stopcock so they tell me - not very helpfull - but I'm not suprised.
 
Which Water company? What area do you live in? You don't give much away!
 
It's a matter of flow resistance - The long run of pipe that has been upgraded has reduced the resistance to flow, even though there is a short run of 15mm pipe still in cricuit. If the last bit of 15mm was replaced it will improve it a little more.

Is the "company" stop cock out in the road or on your land ?
 
My son just had his lead pipe replaced by Thames Water - it was a fixed price (under 30m) and they put in 25mm pipe - it's only a 3 bed semi.
Approx £400
 
I've got around 20m of 32mm into the house and less than a meter of new 15mm - the stopcock is on my drive around a metre from the road.

Water company is Three valleys water and I'm in Hemel Hempstead.

cheers
 

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