Pressure problems

[R0ughHab1tz]

Hello this is my first post on this forum! Hopefully I'm putting it in the right place.

Ok here goes. I live in a mobile home so I don't have extra floors.

So I removed and installed a new water heater(40g to 60g) and a water softener(42k bead). When I installed I plumbed 1/2" piping for the water softener. Reading up the standard now is 3/4" but my trailer is all 1/2"CPVC except for the lead in and out of the hot water tank which is 3/4".

Before I installed the water softener I had the new hot water tank installed to check connections and run the system. The hot water in the kitchen was a trickle. But in the bathroom it's half the "flow" it was before.

I had to move the new water heater to install the water softener so I went to drain it but nothing was coming out even when opening the tap in the bathroom beside it. Making me think the lines were plugged. So with the water tank drain opened I unhooked the hot line from the top of the tank and it started sucking in air to let the water out.

I have two bathrooms by the way and the bathroom that's beside the water heater blasts water no matter if it's hot or cold.

#1 checked all screens for debris. Their was some but not enough to cause issues. Even took out the cartridge in the main bathroom hot side and their was some stuff but nothing that would impede performance. Cold is fine in the main bathroom which is on the other side of the house.

#2 with the hot water tank disconnected and under the kitchen sink hot lines disconnected I used my air compressor to blast the hot lines free. I closed all taps by the way except for that open 3/4" that was connected to the hot water heater. I figured I would do it that way as the 3/4" is bigger and thought it would be easier for anything to come out.

So what steps should I take?

I removed all cartridges I could on this side of the house with no large chunks to make a difference.

I air blasted the lines. Is it an air lock? Should I open all taps and blast again? Would it be alright to air blast with the hot water tank? It's 3 days old so I don't have to worry about scale clogging the pipes now.

 

[TomFOhio]

Try by-passing the new softener and see if that makes any difference.

 

[R0ughHab1tz]

So I did just that and it seems it's the same. Except the cold water is a little stronger. But that's because my mainline comes up under the kitchen sink. FYI I love shark bite connections lol.

I heard newer hot water tanks are lower pressure but I didn't think it would be half as much as a 1970's 40g beast. The water doesn't have to go up hill or anything either. It's just a rectangle lol

 

[TomFOhio]

Their not half the pressure. Just thinking to myself. Make sure all your connections are correct. The in and out of the
softener and the hot and cold on the water heater. These can be crossed very easily. Just double check the lines under
neath for hot and cold coming up through the floor.

 

[R0ughHab1tz]

Crossed lines aren't a worry. I made sure to say "feed to house" "supply to softener" on each end of the new lines plus I ran them separately and installed them separately. Luckily when all the lines were installed back in the day all the hot lines have red on them that come up thru the floor.

Water temperature is fine for both hot and cold so I know I didn't cross anything. It's just the dang flow for the hot side in the bathroom on the other side of my house. Can't even take a shower it's not enough.

Just to add all the fixtures are new. And the internal cartridges are new as well. Pretty much anything above the subfloor now is brand new connections and pipes.

Very frustrating for sure.

One more thing I'm going to try is taking off the spout for the tub and the hot water cartridge and blasting air. I'll update as needed. See if anything comes out

 

[R0ughHab1tz]

Ok so it didn't help. What I'm noticing though is that it's hard to turn the hot tap on like there's so much pressure that it's pushing the spring and rubber inside to much against the cartridge. Is that possible?

 

[R0ughHab1tz]

nothing I do is working unfortunately. Air pressured the lines(in multiple spots), cleaned out screens, cleaned filter heads, removed springs, I'm at a loss. The only thing new is replacinge the water heater. Flow was fine before

 

[TomFOhio]

Take the hot cartridge out and have someone turn on the water. Whatever pressure comes out of the faucet
body is what your going to get. If its a lot on the hot and the cold then you have a plugged faucet body and will
probably have to replace with new.. If you don't have good pressure with the cartridges out then you have a
plugged water line somewhere. Have you already tried this????

 

[R0ughHab1tz]

#1 removed faucet cartridge (nothing to impede performance)

#2 took faucet head off and blew air with faucet cartridge out. (Nothing came out)

#3 went behind and took off water line that connects to hot side. Blew air to possibly remove debris (nothing that way)

#4 took off both water lines from the bathroom sink and with the kitchen faucet open and the aerator removed, with the hot water line removed from the bathtub I blew air into the main CPVC lines *that's with the on/off switch attached (still the same)

#5 - with #4 connections removed I went to the kitchen sink hot line and blew air that way to see if something is impeding from that direction (still the same)

#6 bypassed the water softener as asked before to see if water flow returned to normal (still the same)

#7 this is before I did all that. When I first hooked up the water heater (before the water softener) it was like that so I thought it was clogged so I drained the hot water heater and with the connections removed I went to the kitchen and blew air out that way until no more water came out.

I have blown air from every possible direction and way I could think of. Everything above the subfloor are new connections and heads so don't have to worry about corrosion. The only thing different that I did was remove the old water heater and replace with a new one making sure to have the same(new) pipes as the old one.

The ground is still frozen here so I can't remove my skirting to get underneath and check things out unfortunately.

I didn't remove the cold side cartridge(bathtub) and blew air but I did remove it and check things out. The pressure on cold is completely fine. There is a small flow reduction but nothing that would impair performance.

Last thing I can do is make a service door above the one I have for the floor connections of the bathtub to gain access behind the tub handles/spout and take the lines off that way to see.

If their is anything else i can do(short of calling a plumber) that I haven't thought of I'm all ears.