Every time our Laser 4000 is running the HP rinse cycle, we have a MAJOR pressure loss in several of our self-serve bays. Bays 1 & 2 aren't affected nearly as much as bays 3 & 4, and bay 5 isn't quite as bad either. Had a backflow guy in who took the backflow apart and got some debris out. Hoped that solved the problem, but no... Installed a new 2" PRV valve (on a 2" line), but no, didn't help. Had an expert water softener guy come in and within minutes diagnosed a bad piston in one of the two softener heads. Replaced the piston, but that didn't solve the problem either. (City) water pressure coming into the backflow is about 75 psi. We have four places on the backflow where we can check pressure, and between the 2nd and 3rd places, which are virtually right beside each other, the pressure drops from 75 to about 68 psi. Still about 68 before the PRV valve and (I believe) after the water softeners. Manipulating the pressure regulators on SS pumps 3 & 4 does virtually nothing.
Wash is approx. 11 years old. Have never had this kind of problem in the past. City says the supply is fine, that it's a volume problem on our side. Says that our pipes are "undersized" now (i.e., clogged arteries) and basically need to replace our plumbing. Backflow guy thinks it the water softeners or PRV. He suggested bypassing the PRV to see if that solves it. Water softener guy says it's not the softeners, that we might be losing a couple of psi there, but that's it. He says we ought to install a 3" PRV on our 2" line, even though our 2" PRV is virtually "wide open." Could also set both softeners to recharge at night to make sure they're wide open during the day (...I don't know why it's not already set this way or why he didn't do that while he was there, for the 2nd time from 60 miles away, with my ops mgr). Now what??? Each time I have an expert in it's costing me about 3 or 4 hundred $$. Hasn't gotten better at all. Just a lot of head-scratching going on. Should have come here to where the real experts are in the 1st place. Please help!!!
Wash is approx. 11 years old. Have never had this kind of problem in the past. City says the supply is fine, that it's a volume problem on our side. Says that our pipes are "undersized" now (i.e., clogged arteries) and basically need to replace our plumbing. Backflow guy thinks it the water softeners or PRV. He suggested bypassing the PRV to see if that solves it. Water softener guy says it's not the softeners, that we might be losing a couple of psi there, but that's it. He says we ought to install a 3" PRV on our 2" line, even though our 2" PRV is virtually "wide open." Could also set both softeners to recharge at night to make sure they're wide open during the day (...I don't know why it's not already set this way or why he didn't do that while he was there, for the 2nd time from 60 miles away, with my ops mgr). Now what??? Each time I have an expert in it's costing me about 3 or 4 hundred $$. Hasn't gotten better at all. Just a lot of head-scratching going on. Should have come here to where the real experts are in the 1st place. Please help!!!