Residental water pressure?

[necummins]

Just recently purchased a home that was built in 1970 and noticed that every time I use my lawn sprinklers that they just don't seem to do much of anything as far as having a good spray out of them. I purchased a pressure gauge and see that I have 50 psi at the hose bib. The house is piped with cpvc so I don't think I would have an issue with corroded pipes inside the house. Is it possible to increase my pressure with using a bladder tank or would it be better to use a booster pump and bladder tank? I only want to increase it to around 70-80 psi.

 

[Reach4]

City water or well?

Measure the water pressure while sprinkling.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[necummins]

city water. With 50' of 3/4" hose and 2 sprinklers my pressure drops to 25 psi. I can't believe that 2 sprinklers and that little bit of hose drop pressure that much.

 

[Reach4]

Where are you measuring that pressure? At the spigot that the hoses connect to?

You could also try from the water heater drain. If that drops a lot too, you could largely be limited by the line feeding the house. In that case, a booster pump could help. You could also try a different kind of sprinkler that works longer with less GPM.

 

[Jadnashua]

What size pipe do you have? Keep in mind that CPVC may need a larger pipe than copper to maintain the same pressure and resulting volume since its ID is smaller. Smaller pipe has more friction, which drops the working pressure...static pressure (when nothing is on) will be the same regardless, but once you start drawing water, friction can take over if it can't support the volume.

There are limits on the volume you can provide through any given pipe. Trying to run several sprinklers with a 1/2" cpvc line is probably asking too much of it, as could have an undersized pipe feeding the house.