Questions about pressurized water tanks

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Brad_B

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I do maintenance on a rental house that has poor water pressure when multiple faucets/fixtures are in use. It shares a line with the neighbors who have the same issue. The problem originates from the line coming into both house. Ive removed the water meter and turned it on to verify the pressure was low at the source. The washing machine when in use allows for very little water elsewhere. And with tenants living upstairs and on the main floor its a problem.

I'm curious about the pressurized tanks. Ive read that you can use the tank by itself(without the pump) for storage of water to help out when there is a great need, such as filling a bath tub or the washing machine in is use for a large load. Can I assume there's some truth to this helping with the problem? If merely using it as storage of water, is there a need to add in the relief valves, and pressure gauges and all that stuff i see online? i don't plan on adding a pump.

A while back I tried a pump that hooked directly into the water line just after the meter. It really didn't increase pressure in the house, and the neighbor said he was unable to get any water while that was running.

So I'm hoping a 10 gallon tank (or larger) of stored water could for the most part solve this problem when a lot of water is needed over a short period. Any insight into this matter would be greatly appreciated.
 

Tom Sawyer

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A tank will only give you volume, not better pressure. You either need to re-pipe or add a booster pump and tank
 

hj

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10 gallons is not going to do anything to improve the situation, especially since you will only get about half that much water out of the tank. You need a 30 gallon MINIMUM, and preferably a 50 gallon one. The city water system would act as the "pump" to fill and pressurize it. Then, because you will have a check valve on the inlet to the tank, the water would be forced to flow out into the system when you opened a faucet, but would not be able to backflow into your neighbor's systems when they used their faucets.
 

Brad_B

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10 gallons is not going to do anything to improve the situation, especially since you will only get about half that much water out of the tank. You need a 30 gallon MINIMUM, and preferably a 50 gallon one. The city water system would act as the "pump" to fill and pressurize it. Then, because you will have a check valve on the inlet to the tank, the water would be forced to flow out into the system when you opened a faucet, but would not be able to backflow into your neighbor's systems when they used their faucets.

A check valve was something I had not considered. Thanks for the help.
 

Jadnashua

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Two things to consider...your inlet supply may be too small, or, the inlet pressure may be too low. A static (no water running) pressure check would show what you actually have. Then, assuming that is okay, storing water under that pressure in a storage bladder tank would allow more volume until you'd used all of the water in the storage tank, then it would just run straight through. Because you don't compress all of the air around the bladder to zero volume, you only get a small percentage of the listed total volume. Some tanks show how much actual water is stored under pressure, some express it as the size of the tank, which will also contain a bunch of trapped air. The pressure out of the tank won't be higher than your supply, so test that first, unless you want to add a pump. Also, if the pump tries to move more water than the supply can provide, it will have problems. A low-volume pump, running into a bladder tank may be best, if the supply pressure and volume is too low.
 

hj

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In this case, the lower the initial air pressure the more water will be available from the tank. The more air pressure the less volume is available for water so you have to strike a balance between the two numbers.
 

JKERN

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This scheme would be ideal in a gravity fed type situation but for long service runs or if these renters needed to add filtration equipment like an ro or dishwashers the tank would not be adequate at all you should look into a grundfos type pump that works on the idea of pushing water instead of pulling it we have one in our shop to run our water vending table and fill stations in the back an mq345 115v would push out 19.5 gpm and at quite a long distance you can add a chemical mixing tank for your holding tank thats about 45 gallons and should be set total your probably looking at around 650.00 dollars which is only a couple hundred more than a tank and solve the problem for good
 
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