Plumbing Question

[MC Rider]

I say hook that stuff up.

If you have to uninstall and eat the return fees after, so be it.
Hopefully that will not happen.

[Jerry1]

Good luck with your build. I wish I had a better answer but you’re just going to have to hook it up and see how it goes. I’ve done this three times and only once did it work. By working, I mean that when I turned on both the shower head and the hand held at the same time did I get a reasonable experience out of both heads. I’ve never had it where only one head at a time didn’t work just fine and I don’t think 3/4 versus 1/2 will make any difference. I think the pressure coming in from your main is the deciding factor. That and the flow at each head.

[street]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational You're almost certainly wasting your time worrying about it. I had a 3/4 line going to a bathtub and changed it not only to a 1/2 inch, but also ran it through a valve and a heat exchanger. I timed filling up a 5 gallon bucket before and after. The number of seconds difference was less than my ability to time with the stopwatch. And of course the volume of water is much greater in the bathtub spigot than any showerhead.

You will not notice the difference just like sengsational test shows. You are good to go.

[Vincenzo Corleone]

Thanks, everybody.

I always learn something new on this site. Not too long ago I posted a problem I was having with my dishwasher water valve failing relatively often and learned from you fine people that my issue was water hammer. I installed a water hammer arrestor which seems to have done the trick.

I'm grateful. Sorry to those of you who may have been turned off by what may have appeared to be my challenging your responses - it really wasn't me challenging you or doubting you, but me trying to become educated on this stuff.

[Ronstar]

This doesn’t have much to do with op’s pressure questions, but I’ve been told that high rise buildings like his have equipment on each floor that maintains water pressure for that floor such that every floor has essentially the same water pressure.

[RetireeRobert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vincenzo Corleone Thanks, everybody. I always learn something new on this site. Not too long ago I posted a problem I was having with my dishwasher water valve failing relatively often and learned from you fine people that my issue was water hammer. I installed a water hammer arrestor which seems to have done the trick. I'm grateful. Sorry to those of you who may have been turned off by what may have appeared to be my challenging your responses - it really wasn't me challenging you or doubting you, but me trying to become educated on this stuff.

Do let us know after you have things hooked up---smooth sailing or any problems, and what the solutions were.

[mountainsoft]

Water lines to individual fixtures (sink faucets, bath faucets, showers, toilets, dishwashers, laundry, etc.) are almost always 1/2".

Distribution lines that serve multiple fixtures, such as the line feeding the bathroom sink, toilet, and shower, are usually 3/4". They might need to supply multiple fixtures, so the pipe size is larger to supply more volume.

The main water line serving an entire house is usually 1". Again, more fixtures, more volume needed.

Obviously, plumbers are free to use whatever size pipe they want. In come cases it might be easier to plumb everything with 3/4" so you only need to stock one size of fittings. However, larger pipe means more volume, which can mean longer delays for hot water to reach a fixture.

Instead of the usual "trunk and branches" method of plumbing, some systems use "home run" layouts. These have a single manifold with individual 1/2" lines running to each fixture.

As others have mentioned, most fixtures these days have low flow restrictors to save water. 1/2" pipe is more than enough for most fixtures. The valve and flexible lines running to your sinks and toilets are probably just 3/8" anyway. The tiny openings in the fixture valves are normally even smaller than that.

[Vincenzo Corleone]

It's taken a while, but we're nearing the completion of the bathroom renovation and I'm happy to say the water pressure in the shower is quite good, even with both the handheld shower and the rain shower on at the same time. A real relief - I had been pretty stressed about it.