water pressure, 80 psi

[diablomike]

How important is capping water pressure at 80 psi on large luxury homes? We build/sell them and some of the remodeled homes (do both new and remodel) have around 90 psi and the inspectors make us reduce to 80 psi...living in a couple of these homes, the pressure is already a nuisance when the sprinklers are on or multiple usages at same time. The pressure on the showers is adequate for some of the fixtures but low pressure items like a rain showerhead are almost unusable, even at 90 psi. quality fixtures and pex plumbing lines should be able to handle 90 psi, no ?

 

[Twowaxhack]

If you’re not getting enough water at 80 psi then you need to size the piping properly.

Will a plumbing system handle 90 psi, ? sure it will. As the pressure increases so will other issues, some obvious, some not so obvious.

I could talk about this for hours.......but I’m not. Have a good one ✌

 

[diablomike]

wish you would talk for hours, but I understand....thanks for input.

 

[hdtvkeith]

80 psi is high already. Granted I ran my home at 75psi for years until I started getting pinholes a while back. The pinholes were not caused by the pressure, but figured until I re-pipe why make it easier for them to punch through. I now run 62-64psi, but I can tell the difference at faucets and shower that the 10-12psi made. What I did notice a while back was my washer machine valves started to leak after about 7-8 years as there were no hammer arrestors on those lines until I remodeled, as most appliances/fixtures assume you will have 50-60psi. Heck my municipal water is 90PSI on their side of the regulator.

 

[wpns]

What TwoWaxHack said, your problem isn't pressure, it's pipe size. Large luxury homes should have bigger pipes for more water flow, not higher pressure to try to compensate for undersized pipes. Hard to fix after the fact, other than adding more pressure regulators off the municipal supply (one for the irrigation, one for each quadrant of the house?), but certainly plan ahead for future houses.

 

[SHEPLMBR]

Rainshower heads aren't made to give pressure.

 

[diablomike]

What TwoWaxHack said, your problem isn't pressure, it's pipe size. Large luxury homes should have bigger pipes for more water flow, not higher pressure to try to compensate for undersized pipes. Hard to fix after the fact, other than adding more pressure regulators off the municipal supply (one for the irrigation, one for each quadrant of the house?), but certainly plan ahead for future houses.

thanks all for the input...makes sense that this particular house has a smaller municipal side since addition was done years ago. i think it is clear I should not go over 80 psi. thanks!

 

[diablomike]

Rainshower heads aren't made to give pressure.

yes, but they are supposed to work.

 

[Twowaxhack]

yes, but they are supposed to work.

There’s a valve between the rain head and city pressure. That’s probably where your restriction is. Shower valves only flow so much water per minute. What’s yours rated at ?

Ultimately if you have 80 psi and that’s not enough water either you have undersized piping or you are trying to get more GPM out of products that are not designed to give The GPM that you want.

You may need a bigger water meter and larger feed lines. Your water heater may be the limiting factor....

 

[Hamberg]

...I could talk about this for hours...

Pretty sure I/we have the time - and would love to know!

 

[hukre]

In the last few years many States have revised their plumbing code and put restriction on permissible water flow through residential lavatory faucets.
In New York, max. allowable flow is 1.5 gpm at 60 psi (code revised in 2017), in Washington State, it is now 1.2 gpm at 60 psi. There are ways to simply remove the restrictions in the faucet to get a decent flow, although it may not be lawful.

 

[fixitron]

A few decades ago, when California was the first to require a maximum water flow from fixtures, I replaced a kitchen faucet for a client. Her house, like many here in Vermont, was on a private well that provides 30-50 psi. I could only get a pencil stream of water from the new faucet. I called Moen and learned that the new faucets were rated at 1.5 GPM at 80 PSI. I found and removed the flow restrictor to solve the problem (Moen told me that they could not talk about a flow restrictor). Twowaxhack was right on the first response. It is math and science that are used to figure out pipe sizing, and I could go on and on (I love math and science).