Interior Poor water pressure on mains?

[MiniKlein]

Can someone provide some insight on why I would be having poor pressure when connected to mains? When using the tanks and pump we have great pressure? I have a inline pressure reducer, I took this off but it seems like a simple device and had nothing blocking it? Can I just remove it or do I need to replace it? Why is it really required? Thanks in advance!

 

[MiniKlein]

 

[bigcol]

I'm not a plumbing person, so I cannot help you
but
I am sure someone will be along shortly with some better help than me

 

[chartrock]

Have a look at this link. Some one was having the same problem.

 

[MiniKlein]

Thanks @chartrock appreciate your help in pointing me in the right direction! Cheers mate

 

[chartrock]

Thanks @chartrock appreciate your help in pointing me in the right direction! Cheers mate

You showed me something, only too glad to return the favour. If I didn't another member would have. That's our forum. :drum:

 

[DRW]

I finally got around to removing mine a week or so ago, pulled the guts out and put it back on, works a treat now

 

[dagree]

@MiniKlein That valve is actually a pressure limiting valve installed incase an area has high water pressure and reduces the risk of blowing or bursting pipes in the van.
One thing to try which is also mentioned in the link @chartrock put up (from memory) is to pull it apart, stretch the spring and put back together... Did that with ours and been good so far.

If it plays up again I'll be doing the same as @DRW!

 

[DRW]

Good call @dagree all but the council owned parks around here have very poor pressure, I did think of that also but can probably regulate it at the tap, if we have problems I will replace the valve. When we couldn't get water from the mains I just used the tanks and could still top them up each day or two anyway, cheers

 

[Drover]

My PRV is in the bin, used it for awhile with the insides taken out, never have found any high pressure places and if I did I'm sure the hose would pop off before the valve had to do anything.
The non return valve possibly located in the mains hose connector may have some crap in it......or there's a bit of swirl in the line between hose connector and pump junction.
Oh if you have a filter the pressure may not be enough to push thru it, I only use a 10micron.

 

[Turtle]

Here's my two bobs worth,
We've got better pressure from our pump than the mains connection so I'm looking at my options.
I've looked in to replacing my 350kpa PRV with a 500kpa PRV but have noted that the specs on the Truma HWS have a max pressure of 450kpa so this is not an option.
What I did note when looking at the 500kpa valves was they are available with varying flow rates. One had a rate of 60l per minute and another with 75l per minute so this got me wondering, is it a pressure or flow rate problem?
One would imagine that the pump is matched to the equipment in the van and therefore does not exceed the 450kpa rating of the HWS so I'm of the opinion that the pump must have a better flow rate than the PRV.
My 350kpa PRV has a flow rate of 50l per minute which I will measure today to see what it actually is (2l milk bottle should fill in 2.4 seconds).
Stay tuned!!!!!

 

[Turtle]

The plot thickens!
Pump ratings are 340kpa and 11l per minute.
Measured flow of PRV is about 13.5l per minute. This was with PVR connected directly to hose and straight in to bottle (totally disconnected from van plumbing).
So flow should be better off mains?

 

[Bellbirdweb]

The plot thickens!
Pump ratings are 340kpa and 11l per minute.
Measured flow of PRV is about 13.5l per minute. This was with PVR connected directly to hose and straight in to bottle (totally disconnected from van plumbing).
So flow should be better off mains?

In addition to the pressure and flow, you also need to take into account friction loss.

The plumbing on these vans goes around a million corners, through connectors and bends so I suspect a large part of the culprit will be friction loss.

This could be tested the same way as you have done with your bucket.

If it does turn out to be the plumbing, then you could potentially remove the PRV all together, however the risk you take is you don't know at what points the pressure and flow are being restricted.

As @Drover said somewhere once before though, I've never been to a caravan park that had any pressure anyhow, so the risk of overpressurising would be minimal.

Seems to be a very common issue.

 

[Drover]

Water flow is a mix of pressure and volume, lower pressure on my paddock lines is pretty good in the 3"main but in the 1.25 " line is shocking and I need to boost the pressure the same goes for the van, friction and volume but the big worry about pressure blowing things up is a bit of a furphy really, my mains hose has a screw in coupling on one end and a garden hose click on fitting on the other which would probably blow before 50 psi, just haven't found anywhere with that pressure yet.............I have gone all over mine and still can't get any great pressure from the shower BUT I did notice recently the fittting which the shower hose thing screws onto only has a small damn tiny hole, another flow restriction which needs a drill bit put thru it think...................

Has anyone looked inside the shower fitting to see if they have those stupid restrictors like house ones have fitted ???? I have ripped it out of ours in the house, being on tank water we don't have the pressure and with it in only get a dribble. .

 

[Bellbirdweb]

Water flow is a mix of pressure and volume, lower pressure on my paddock lines is pretty good in the 3"main but in the 1.25 " line is shocking and I need to boost the pressure the same goes for the van, friction and volume but the big worry about pressure blowing things up is a bit of a furphy really, my mains hose has a screw in coupling on one end and a garden hose click on fitting on the other which would probably blow before 50 psi, just haven't found anywhere with that pressure yet.............I have gone all over mine and still can't get any great pressure from the shower BUT I did notice recently the fittting which the shower hose thing screws onto only has a small damn tiny hole, another flow restriction which needs a drill bit put thru it think...................

Has anyone looked inside the shower fitting to see if they have those stupid restrictors like house ones have fitted ???? I have ripped it out of ours in the house, being on tank water we don't have the pressure and with it in only get a dribble. .

Good thought @Drover, I'll be having a look in the morning.

Its really only the shower that seems to be a problem. Not really much of a worry if the kitchen sink takes a bit longer to fill up.

Are you referring to the connection between the flexible hose and the shower head itself ?

 

[Drover]

The shower hose on mine where it hooks onto the tap outlet has a very small outlet hole and some shower heads have a restrictor in the shower head itself, I don't know if the van ones do, been one of my " While At Home Jobs " just haven't got that far down the list yet, trying to get decent pressure has been a constant task, I have practically dismantled and rebuild my plumbing, cleared out a bit of scarf and redone runs for better flow, removed about 6 joiners that were not really needed, was even tempted to run some bigger lines but saw sense.

 

[Turtle]

Success!
After determining that the flow rate at the shower was about 50% of the kitchen tap, I went looking for the cause.
It ended up being a rouge piece of thread tape had got caught up in the shower head filter/flow restrictor.
About 50% blocked hey?

 

[Drover]

Ar ha, so there is one of those demons fitted...................throw it in the bin.

 

[Crusty181]

You could pull the guts out of the PRV and just use a cheap plastic screw on PRV on the tap before you connect the hose.

Theyre designed for garden drip systems, about $7 from Bunnings garden hose fittings area. It works really well

Mines a 350kPa and allows more pressure than the Jayco inline PRV

 

[MiniKlein]

Success finally! Thanks to everyone for all the tips. I pulled it all apart and stretched the spring. Works a treat for the time being But also went to Bunnings and picked up the click on PRV thanks @Crusty181 and a bit of tube to bypass in the future!