Can I increase water pressure to 2nd floor

acl10

Can I increase water pressure to 2nd floor. My flushometer toilet will not fully flush and it seems due to lowwater pressure on the 2nd floor. Is there anything I can do?

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Water pressure

What is your water pressure now?

kevin_58

water pressure

Did you check pressure if so how much. Do you have galvanized water piping.

Jamie Hall

Excellent thought

Kevin has there -- flushometers take a very high water flow rate.  If your pipes are galvanized, it is unlikely (after the years) that they can handle that flow rate.  Even if they are copper, if they are half inch (which wouldn't surprise me) they will not reliably feed a flushometer.  You need a three quarter inch copper or PEX feed for a flushometer.

acl10

I dont know

I dont know  what the pressure is. Its an 80 year old house so it probably has old piping. Is there anything I can do about this on the 2nd floor level?

acl10

I dont know

I dont know  what the pressure is. Its an 80 year old house so it probably has old piping. Is there anything I can do about this on the 2nd floor level?

TonyS

not so much water pressure as

water volume. A quick fix is to install a small well xtrol bladder tank in a closet or behind a wall and then run 3/4 to your flush valve. You will have to play with the air pressure in the bladder to get the best flush and you will have to wait until the tank fills up each time, but it works.

rlaggren

Some info to gather...

A basic pressure gauge from home depot s/b about $15; it will screw onto a hose connection.



At the hose bib closest to where your water service enters the house:

- Pressure ground floor with nothing running

- Pressure ground floor when you run the bath tub full on

- Pressure ground floor when you flush the toilet upstairs



If the pressure drops below 45-50 psi when water runs, then your service (from the street to the house) or the service valve is constricting the flow. Make sure the valve is fully open.



At the laundry tub or hot water heater (if there are not check valves or pressure tanks at the HWH):

- Pressure when nothing runs

- etc; same as above



A drop here (if there was NO appreciable drop at the hose bib) means the pipes between the water service entrance and  laundry (or HWH) are constricting the flow.



To do the upstairs, you need to buy an adapter so you can screw the pressure gauge onto the bathroom basin faucet, the shower arm (if you have a tight diverter valve the lets essentially NO water come out the spout when you shower) or another toilet on the 2nd floor as close as possible to the flushometer in question (requires temporarily disconnecting the toilet from the supply).

- Pressure when running something (sink or bath).

- Pressure when flushing the toilet in question.



The pressure needs to remain at least #40psi (more would be better) to work the flushometer properly.



If you have proper pressure, there may be a blockage in the flushometer "stop" (the shutoff that allows servicing the valve); or there may be a problem with the valve itself.



If the pressure is bad  your only fix is to run a brand new 1" supply to that toilet from the place where the water service enters the house. 3/4" may or may not work depending on the pressure you have from the city (use the reading at the hosebid where the water enters the house, while running the tub) and the distance to the toilet.



This is not hard to figure out but unfortunately it may be expensive to remedy. Might be better to install a standard toilet. Depending on your aesthetic sensibility you could open the wall and move the supply down or you could connect to the existing supply and pipe it down the wall on the outside. In either case, if it's old galvanized the plumber needs to be very very gentle with it. Use a torch to get the old fitting to loosen up w/out breaking. You're going to repipe that house sometime but you'd like to plan it and not have a repair turn into a repipe at 10x the cost.



Best luck.  Rufus

Mark Eatherton

Do yourself and the World a favor...

Replace it with a new 1.6 GPF toilet.



Some utilities will subsidize the installed cost.



ME

acl10

Would a pisiton style work better

Would a piston style work better. I cant increase the pressure. Are zurn and Sloan piston parts interchangeable?

icesailor

Pressure:

Now that I know that you have an 80 year old house, it had a tank type 2" flush ell toilet installed in the beginning. It didn't have a flushometer type toilet.

You need to buy a tank type 14" rough toilet with the ugly tank spacer on it and make it what it was.

If you were paid for your time, the time and materials wwould have paid for two toilets.

You're not a Licensed Plumber .

You do not understand how solenoid and flushometer valves work.

You do not understand the relationship between pressure, volume, and pressure/volume work together.

Call a Licensed Plumber to get you out of your mess.

It's amazing how much money you can save when you do it wrong the first time.