Hi all, I'm having trouble with low water pressure and was hoping for some help in diagnosing it.
I recently moved into a new house and had great pressure for about a month, up until I had a water softener installed. It's one of those big salt softener types by Culligan like this one, plus an inline filter. Since then water pressure has been steady but not as good as before, and is especially lower in the kitchen faucet, which is the furthest away from all the water works in my basement. I had Culligan send someone to check it out and his diagnosis was that pressure loss occurs after exiting the pressure tank, ergo it should be replaced. That's poised to cost me ~$700 so I'm looking for some pointers or a second opinion before I bite that bullet.
Anyway, here's the various odds and ends and some of the technical details I've been able to work out:
- The pressure tank is a Well-X-Trol WX-203, installed in 2002 according to the label.
- I'm not sure I fully understood what the Culligan guy said he thinks the problem is. Apparently the tank's diaphragm can become stuck and is causing the exit valve to be physically obstructed, thus the loss in pressure. Can't quite picture this in my head, but I hope this makes sense. Maybe he meant a piece of the diaphragm flaked off and is blocking the outlet? Is that possible?
- When he was looking at it (and according to writing on the receipt) he said the tank seemed heavy so must be full of water. Empty pressure is about 28.5 psi, full pressure is 51 psi. When I tap it above the diaphragm line it sounds hollow and it doesn't spray water from the release valve so I'm guessing the diaphragm is still airtight? Can it be partially waterlogged? Everything online seems to say that if the diaphragm fails it will just fill up to the top.
- Pressure switch is apparently calibrated to 30/50 as evidenced by the psi. This is in line with what it says on the cover, although the gauge goes from ~54 to ~74. It's a pretty old gauge so I'm guessing it's just inaccurate. Don't know if that makes a difference but there you have it.
- Turning the softener's bypass on/off doesn't cause any changes in pressure, so evidently something happened during installation but the softener itself isn't the issue.
- The pipes connecting the well to the pressure tank and immediately leading out of it are galvanized. I've read that these can get clogged pretty bad by hard water, however, the pressure used to be better before the softener installation and that part of the piping wasn't replaced. After the galvanized pipe leaving the tank (~2-3'), the rest of the plumbing is all PEX pipe.
- Finally, there is a fork in the pipe, right after the galvanized part and before the filter and softener, the other end of which leads to a hydrant in my barn. The pressure in my barn is still very good and as far as I can tell hasn't changed much, if at all (though I don't have actual readings, just eyeballing). Shutting off the barn line does not affect the pressure in the house.
I think that's pretty much it, can try to supply further details if needed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I recently moved into a new house and had great pressure for about a month, up until I had a water softener installed. It's one of those big salt softener types by Culligan like this one, plus an inline filter. Since then water pressure has been steady but not as good as before, and is especially lower in the kitchen faucet, which is the furthest away from all the water works in my basement. I had Culligan send someone to check it out and his diagnosis was that pressure loss occurs after exiting the pressure tank, ergo it should be replaced. That's poised to cost me ~$700 so I'm looking for some pointers or a second opinion before I bite that bullet.
Anyway, here's the various odds and ends and some of the technical details I've been able to work out:
- The pressure tank is a Well-X-Trol WX-203, installed in 2002 according to the label.
- I'm not sure I fully understood what the Culligan guy said he thinks the problem is. Apparently the tank's diaphragm can become stuck and is causing the exit valve to be physically obstructed, thus the loss in pressure. Can't quite picture this in my head, but I hope this makes sense. Maybe he meant a piece of the diaphragm flaked off and is blocking the outlet? Is that possible?
- When he was looking at it (and according to writing on the receipt) he said the tank seemed heavy so must be full of water. Empty pressure is about 28.5 psi, full pressure is 51 psi. When I tap it above the diaphragm line it sounds hollow and it doesn't spray water from the release valve so I'm guessing the diaphragm is still airtight? Can it be partially waterlogged? Everything online seems to say that if the diaphragm fails it will just fill up to the top.
- Pressure switch is apparently calibrated to 30/50 as evidenced by the psi. This is in line with what it says on the cover, although the gauge goes from ~54 to ~74. It's a pretty old gauge so I'm guessing it's just inaccurate. Don't know if that makes a difference but there you have it.
- Turning the softener's bypass on/off doesn't cause any changes in pressure, so evidently something happened during installation but the softener itself isn't the issue.
- The pipes connecting the well to the pressure tank and immediately leading out of it are galvanized. I've read that these can get clogged pretty bad by hard water, however, the pressure used to be better before the softener installation and that part of the piping wasn't replaced. After the galvanized pipe leaving the tank (~2-3'), the rest of the plumbing is all PEX pipe.
- Finally, there is a fork in the pipe, right after the galvanized part and before the filter and softener, the other end of which leads to a hydrant in my barn. The pressure in my barn is still very good and as far as I can tell hasn't changed much, if at all (though I don't have actual readings, just eyeballing). Shutting off the barn line does not affect the pressure in the house.
I think that's pretty much it, can try to supply further details if needed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.