City water pressure
- Thread starter bobcat9095
- Start date
Main Street Carwash
Member
If pressure is a problem, a booster pump may help. If volume is a problem, a larger water line may be in order. A lot of times, especially if you are in an older area, the city water systems are old and riddled with leaks. Since it is difficult and costly to locate and repair them, the city will just figure it in as a cost of doing business and pass the increased costs on to the customers. Pressure on the city administration may be in order. My city recently found a 3 million gallon a day leak that went undetected for a long time. Are there any other businesses close by that would consume lots of water? Maybe when they are, you are losing volume and/or pressure as a result.
Main Street Carwash
Member
Oh, to answer your question, my pressure runs about 90 psi at one wash but I haven't checked the other wash.
soapy
Senior Member
My WP is about 75 but I can get low pressure sometimes at one location. I put a 200 gallon tank next to the holding tank and connected the 2 with a 3 inch line. That gives me plenty of reserve to never run out of water. It is the same size tank so no need to changed floats in the original tank.
Main Street Carwash
Member
We are under mandatory water restrictions starting today because of a massive water leak the city has to locate and repair.
bobcat9095
Member
Thanks guys. I haven't had this issue until recently now that the pressure fluctuates. If i have 50 + psi I have no issue. At times I have up to 75psi. Our main lines (city) that supply my wash are old and I think the city is afraid to open valves more for fear of leaks. My house is 80psi in another part of town. I was just wondering if 40-45psi is acceptable for commercial service. There are not any businesses near me that should consume a large amount of water.
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
When we had to run a larger pipe coming in ... being a corner lot ... we had an option to tie into a newer main with a 4" piping. Once in building it can be downsized. Something to check into. Volume & pressure can be related. In other words, too small of a line coming in can cause intermittent pressure problems. In our case, it made more sense to stay away from setting up an incoming storage tank, &/or booster pump setup.
MEP001
Well-known member
Same here. The city of Austin can't even treat that much water for supply in a day.
Main Street Carwash
Member
Google it. Galveston Texas. There are several news articles about it. We are under mandatory restrictions today so they can find and repair another apparently massive leak.
Main Street Carwash
Member
They estimated it leaked this much for 7 years
getnbusy
Active member
Bobcat I had the same problem. I have a 4/1 with a laser 4000. I got all installed and ran out of water on the third car. I only had 40 psi also and it just wouldn't keep up. My water line was small also. I didn't want to dig up the lot for a new line so I put in a storage tank and installed a booster pump controlled by a vfd. My setup is a little overkill but I could not open for business till I fixed the problem. I dont like that the system is dependent on the pump, but it works like a champ.
MEP001
Well-known member
For me it wasn't a matter of believing you, but it's hard to imagine that a municipality can have such a leak and not even know. I assume it wasn't a leak after the treated water or they would have figured it out much sooner. It may have been similar to what I experienced a few years back when the pipeline from Stillhouse Hollow Lake broke and had to be shut down. We were closed completely for a month and only allowed to open from noon to 5 PM for two more months after that. It wasn't treated water leaking.
Main Street Carwash
Member
I wasn't concerned about you believing me. I just thought you may like to read the articles. We purchase most of our water so the treatment facility has limited relevance. Once they capped the 10 inch pipe that was unmapped in their system, water purchases went down 3 million gallons per day. It was found when they were installing backflow preventers on the storm drains so the bay water at high tide would not back up through the storm drains. In January of this year we had a hard freeze for several days which is unusual here and it caused 10's of thousands leaks. It was a crisis for a short period. There are so many old unmapped pipes still on the system, I don't know how they can ever figure it out. We have a "billion gallon water problem" down here. Its nuts.
Main Street Carwash
Member
The city shut down my car wash yesterday due to emergency water restrictions. They need to fix this problem quickly.
