Basement Sink Additions

[Kevin Boggs]

Evening gentlemen and ladies. I recently added a utility sink, on the unfinished side of our basement, and just finished adding a bar sink, on the finished side. The house is newer construction and uses CPVC for all the supply lines. I branched off the 3/4 inch going to and coming from the hot water heater for the hot and cold lines. From there I installed quarter turn shut offs for both hot and cold, to limit the amount of time the house was without water. I continued with the 3/4 inch for about 8 feet until I reduced and split the lines to 1/2 inch using reducing tee connection to each sink fixture. The issue I am running into is that the pressure/flow coming out of the sink faucets are minimal at best. It would probably take over an hour to fill my utility sink. At first we though it was the utility sink faucet, since that came from our old house and had not been used for several years and new bar faucet is the same. Or that it was a clog in the supply lines, but the issue is with both the hot and cold. Neither faucet has regulators and I checked that the shut offs are completely open. Pressure for all other faucets in the house are still just fine and haven't changed. I'm thinking of replacing the 3/4 inch with 1/2 inch from the initial branch shut offs I originally installed to see if that would increase the pressure. Any ideas out there?

 

[WorthFlorida]

At the sink and with a 5 gallon pail fill it for one minute, estimate the amount of water in the pail.

What you need to do is check the flow rate from the WH hot and cold lines. From the valves you installed, you'll need to open the pipe and check the flow. If push and fit, remove the valves, if glued cut the pipe past the valves. With a 5 gallon pail, run the water for one minute. Most homes are 3-5 gallons per minute with city water, may be more.

If you glued all connections, too much cement that hardened inside the pipe could be restricting the flow. You can disconnect the faucet and connect a flex hose to the shut offs and check the water flow.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Sylvan]

Many people get confused about "pressure" and volume

If the pressure supply is 40 PSI and you decrease the diameter of a supply line you will increase the velocity of the water BUT not increase the pressure

Ever see a garden hose nozzle? The supply is 30 PSI and by decreasing the orifice you will increase the velocity BUT the suppply pressure remains the same

increasing or decreasing the diameter will cause more or less friction losses but will not decrease the available pressure


Check the aerator of the old faucet and see it it has a flow restrictor

 

[Kevin Boggs]

At the sink and with a 5 gallon pail fill it for one minute, estimate the amount of water in the pail.

What you need to do is check the flow rate from the WH hot and cold lines. From the valves you installed, you'll need to open the pipe and check the flow. If push and fit, remove the valves, if glued cut the pipe past the valves. With a 5 gallon pail, run the water for one minute. Most homes are 3-5 gallons per minute with city water, may be more.

If you glued all connections, too much cement that hardened inside the pipe could be restricting the flow. You can disconnect the faucet and connect a flex hose to the shut offs and check the water flow.

Went with your suggestion and started at the sink shutoffs. Full flow from there on both sinks. Turns out our "new" faucet has a bunch of gunk in the line just before the head. Disconnect and cleaned it out and blamo, full flow. Didn't think that both of the faucets would have the same issue since one was "new". I'm going to replace the utility sink faucet since it has seen some better days.

Thanks for the assistance from all.