Booster pump plumbing

[getnbusy]

ok so my water pressure is low and my water line is too small. Upgrading my tap size and replacing my line is pretty much out of the question. My plan is to install a booster pump and storage reservoir. The pump for the pressure and the reservoir for the water shortage.

My question is do I plumb in the reservoir on the inlet or outlet of the pump ?

 

[Earl Weiss]

ok so my water pressure is low and my water line is too small. Upgrading my tap size and replacing my line is pretty much out of the question. My plan is to install a booster pump and storage reservoir. The pump for the pressure and the reservoir for the water shortage.

My question is do I plumb in the reservoir on the inlet or outlet of the pump ?

Inlet. Reservoir should supply the pump. Pump supplies everything else. Have a spare pump or plumb in a bypass in case it fails

 

[mac]

Ideally you would also like to install a bladder tank and a regulator. This will give you a constant flow and pressure.

 

[MEP001]

It's more expensive, but there's a unit that's VF drive and uses a pressure transducer to regulate pressure. Its main advantage is size, you don't need a big bladder or storage tank, it's usually just a 1 gallon.

 

[WikiWash]

It's more expensive, but there's a unit that's VF drive and uses a pressure transducer to regulate pressure. Its main advantage is size, you don't need a big bladder or storage tank, it's usually just a 1 gallon.

I believe I saw something like that at a plumbing show last year at the Grundfos booth. I don't think it was VFD driven though.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Is this for a tunnel or SS / IBA?

 

[loewem]

You might be interested in the following links:

http://towle-whitney.com/Laundryprojects.html - this company makes pressure boosting systems for laundries and car washes. The systems use variable frequency that MEP mentioned.

http://www.cyclestopvalves.com/ - this company sells kits that use a cycle stop valve which allows for use of a smaller pressure tank and reduces pump cycling.

Good luck!

 

[getnbusy]

thanks to everybody. Earl this is a SS/Iba.

I bought a Berkley pump with the vfd drive and transducer. Mine is a 3hp and I was told a 5 gallon expansion tank.

I talked with the town water folks and they had some cool mathematics concerning volume and pressure and stuff like that. I'm pretty sure what I'm doin will work. Just doin due diligence because this is expensive and there is quite a bit of plumbing.


keep it comin. any and al info is appreciated. I'm go do this one nite this week
thanks
Bob

 

[Randy]

What size is your incoming water main? How much pressure do you have? What kind of pipe is in the ground? How long of a run is it from the street the car wash? How many bays are you trying to feed? Any automatics? We’ve had to do a booster pump at a few car washes. The only way we got it to work was to install a large tank reservoir and a shallow well tank/pump.

 

[getnbusy]

What size is your incoming water main? How much pressure do you have? What kind of pipe is in the ground? How long of a run is it from the street the car wash? How many bays are you trying to feed? Any automatics? We’ve had to do a booster pump at a few car washes. The only way we got it to work was to install a large tank reservoir and a shallow well tank/pump.

1.25" water line
1.0" water tap
45 psi at the tap and in the equipment room also
black plastic pipe
150' pipe length
4 bays , 1 touchfree auto (total gpm is 52)
the 1" tap will flow 55gpm

I'm putting in the reservoir but using a vfd pump with transducer rather than well pump.

Have you used the vfd setup before ?? I chose that one because I didn't want a contactor and pressure switch for a well. However, I don't know a lot about its performance, but to me it sounds like a Cadillac setup. I just hope it works

 

[Randy]

Those numbers don’t look too bad, they’d work here. Are those raw numbers or are they actual numbers taken with a flowmeter? A 1” meter is normally only 5/8” on the inside. You’re going to get some friction loss from 150’ run from the street. The greatest loss is in the equipment room. What other equipment are you trying to supply water to? Do you have a water softener in the system? We used a 500 gallon tank and a shallow well pump. The last wash we did we had to install an additional 2” water meter and run another 2” pipe to the supply enough water to the 3 automatics and the S/S bays, there wasn't any room to add a tank or booster pump in the equipment room. Is this a new wash, an old wash with a new automatic, what’s the whole story?

 

[getnbusy]

Those numbers don’t look too bad, they’d work here. Are those raw numbers or are they actual numbers taken with a flowmeter? A 1” meter is normally only 5/8” on the inside. You’re going to get some friction loss from 150’ run from the street. The greatest loss is in the equipment room. What other equipment are you trying to supply water to? Do you have a water softener in the system? We used a 500 gallon tank and a shallow well pump. The last wash we did we had to install an additional 2” water meter and run another 2” pipe to the supply enough water to the 3 automatics and the S/S bays, there wasn't any room to add a tank or booster pump in the equipment room. Is this a new wash, an old wash with a new automatic, what’s the whole story?

This is an old wash upgrade. It was 6ss bays. Now its 4ss with 1 touchfree. I initially thought I had enuf water, but a slow fill on my rinse tank for the auto wont keep up with back to back cars and full capacity in the bays. At first I thought a pressure problem. I did find out that my municipality is only required to produce 20psi. Fortunately I have 45 psi at my meter, but it does experience a big swing in pressure causing other problems as well. The 1" tap was a surprise(dummy me). The 1.25 water line threw me off. I'll know better next time.

When I took the meter out to test the pressure, I measured the hole in the meter myself. Its 1' on the inside The 55gpm I stated came from the city engineer. He sounded like he knew his equipment very well. I also checked the pressure coming into the room. Its 45 psi there also which was odd I thought. I expected loss due to the pipe size and distance. No other equipment in the room to supply, just a sink. The city engineer stated that the 1" tap and 1" meter were my biggest restrictions(because of the limited flow). He ballparked 10k to upgrade my meter. Then I'd have to get new pipe into my room.