Upgrade to manifold

[gahlen]

I was wandering if it is worth it to replumb my house and go with a manifold system versus the tree layout that I currently have. All of my plumbing is exposed and reachable via the unfinished basement. The reason I ask is due to pressure drop when someone else flushes a toilet or more than one shower is running....... Thanks for your advice. Everything I read says that the manifold system is more economical and has balanced pressure. That makes sense to me coming from an electrical engineering background where parallel offers less resistance than serial. I realize that there are many variables here but I am looking for a better solution than being frozen or cooked in the shower!

 

[hj]

manifold

The comparison is not exactly the same, but since PEX has a smaller i.d. than copper, unless you use a larger size PEX than you would copper it is similar to using the same size aluminum conductor in place of a copper one. Unless the pipes to the manifold are sized properly you will still have a pressure differential. The real cure is to install a pressure balanced shower valve to control the problem.