Boosting city water without over boosting

[derjuden]

I have about 40 psi pressure from my city water. I replaced a water heater and the pressure is even lower now from that side. I've looked at boosters but I only want to boost the pressure to a total of about 60 psi so I don't damage my plumbing system would I need a reduce as well installed after the booster or before? As for the pressure drop after replacing the water heater I replaced a leaking 30 year old 75 gallon with a 50 gallon heater.

 

[Twowaxhack]

the new water heater probably has heat traps that reduce the pressure.

what brand water heater ?

 

[derjuden]

Rheem. I did install a ball valve heat trap on it aa recommendsd by the guy at home depot that pulled down the water heater. Would boosting the pressure help at all then with the heat trap installed or anything to be aware of with that?

 

[arctic bill]

be careful , some municipalities have very tough laws against boosting the water pressure.
You see if you install a booster pump you can create a negative pressure in the municipal water main. this would cause any leaks that ran from inside the municipal mains to actually suck up ground water into the main.

 

[RS]

I don't understand how replacing a water heater would reduce pressure? I certainly would never buy that type of heater. If your municipality will allow a booster pump I would install a typical shallow well pump and pressure tank, as long as it will develop the 60 psi that you want, not all will do that. I'm sure valveman will try to sell you a cycle stop valve!

 

[Twowaxhack]

I don't understand how replacing a water heater would reduce pressure? I certainly would never buy that type of heater. If your municipality will allow a booster pump I would install a typical shallow well pump and pressure tank, as long as it will develop the 60 psi that you want, not all will do that. I'm sure valveman will try to sell you a cycle stop valve!

The old heater probably didn’t have heat traps, new heater does. New heater is more restrictive.

 

[derjuden]

I don't understand how replacing a water heater would reduce pressure? I certainly would never buy that type of heater. If your municipality will allow a booster pump I would install a typical shallow well pump and pressure tank, as long as it will develop the 60 psi that you want, not all will do that. I'm sure valveman will try to sell you a cycle stop valve!

While at home depot picking up the new water heater the guy helping me recommended a heat trap. Of course he didn't say anything about it lowering the pressure which would have been nice. I still have the connectors that came with the new water heater so I could swap them out. Sounds like the likely path I'm going to need to take. I like in a large suburb in SW Washington so I would bet they have rules against boosters. I just wish we had better pressure in general. My last house had a regulator on it and I was able to set my water pressure to about 60 psi. Here I've never found a regulator on my main from the street or under my house. All the neighbors complain about our low pressure. I put in a flo by moen water shut off when I moved in because the house has the old plastic Grey pipes and didn't want to fork out 20k to redo the plumbing right away. It gives me the pressure on an app so I know it's always around 42 psi.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Post pics of the top of your water heater and piping.