Fresh water tank vs "city" water pressure
I have a pressure gauge and monitor so not to let city water pressure damage the RV, but I have a question. If using city water and I am getting 50 psi at the hose I still only get about 1/2 the pres...
Forum Discussion
Wishbone51 wrote:
If the cheap pressure regulator states 50psi, how would a more expensive one give you better pressure? I've read this before, but I don't understand.
Water pressure and water flow are different things.
Pressure is necessary, but you need an open flow.
Pressure is how hard the water comes out of the shower head.
Flow is how much water comes out of the shower head.
Almost everyone complaining about low water pressure actually has good pressure, but very low flow.
Cheap pressure regulators control the pressure by restricting the flow. The easiest way to control pressure is to restrict the flow of water. The very popular Camco is going to allow only 1.5 to 2 GPM.
Higher quality pressure regulators can keep the pressure steady while allowing 4-4.5 gallons per minute of water flow.
The Watts regulator can reach 9 gallons per minute.
All three regulators will keep the water pressure at 50 pounds.
But for a four minute shower:
Camco - $7-8 = 6-8 gallons of water
Valterra - $50-70 = 15-18 gallons of water
Watts - $120-180 = 36-40 gallons of water
Assuming all the parts in the system are correct and there are no slipped washers or other restricting items.
The in-house water pump is just a couple feet from the shower/ faucet - and with only one or two possible sources of restriction. Shurflow pumps run at 2.5 to 4 GPM, Flojet has 2.9 to 5 GPM pumps.
