Thread: Hot Water Pressure

haha. thankyou for pointing out the obvious stupidity on my part!!!!

not knowing what it looked like, i had the non return valve and pressure redcing valve all connected directly to each other, and i thought it was all one thing!!!

As you can obviously tell, i am not a plumber either.

Oh and by the way, the problem with the toilet pan leaking - the trap on the toilet sat about 20mm offset to the pipe through the floor, but the plumber decided he didnt need to use an offset Pan Collar, but instead stretched a rubber boot across the offset!!!! and needless to say, 3 months down the track, the boot had split, and moved and water was running everywhere.
1 x offset pan collar later, and it is all fixed.

I tell you what though, next time i will only go with recommended tradesmen. all of these contractors were subcontracted by the builder we hired, so we had no idea who they all were, and everyone of them has done shoddy work.

Lesson learnt. the hard way.

I only knew about it because my old man is a plumber and he did the plumbing at our place (dual occupancy). He put one of those pressure limiting valves on both systems because he was told that he had to and I remember him going crook about the price of the things. The pressure in his place was lousy, so he took it off and it made all the difference. That's why I had a feeling it might be what your problem was going to be. I'll check ours because if it's one of those NEFA brand ones I'll get him to replace it.

When I was a boy, IIRC, they were called AJAX valves.

Originally Posted by silentC

I only knew about it because my old man is a plumber and he did the plumbing at our place (dual occupancy). He put one of those pressure limiting valves on both systems because he was told that he had to and I remember him going crook about the price of the things. The pressure in his place was lousy, so he took it off and it made all the difference. That's why I had a feeling it might be what your problem was going to be. I'll check ours because if it's one of those NEFA brand ones I'll get him to replace it.

You have to in a lot of areas these days, the trusty AS3500 states that; the maximum static pressure should not exceed 500kPa (50m head) at any outlet.........
a lot of people have dramas with dishwashers, hot water heaters, washing machines, fridges with ice makers etc. because the manufacturer will state the maximum inlet pressure for the appliance which is usually 500kPa but fridges and icemakers are sometimes as low as 150kPa.
People ring the manufacture saying the machines had the richard looking for a repair under warranty. They send out a technician and the first thing they do is check the inlet pressure and say "sorry mate, warranty's void" if its over their maximum stated pressure.
Example, Sylvania Waters here in Sydney is a 'man made' series of canals and what they call islands, built on a stinking black mud mangrove swamp. Its only a small suburb but it is dead flat the whole way through, therefore their water is pumped and they are on a vacuumm sewer system. Ive taken readings of nearly 1100kPa in the dead of the day and between 600 and 800 kPa in peak periods.
A fella I know was asked to run some water under the house and up for a new fridge with icemaker and all the gear, which cost the owner $5,500 (the fridge that is!). The instructions stated the max inlet pressure must be 350kPa or under, please use our PLV provided by us to acheive this task, (they are a little plastic unit that also acts as a check valve).
All was well, three weeks later gets a call from the owner to get here now and meet with the technicion from the manufacture. The pressure had blown the guts out of their little valve, blew something in the back of the fridge, flooded the place and ruined the owners new hardwood floor.
The owner put it on the manufacturer who put it on the plumber because the inlet pressure exceeded their recommended 350kPa.
"but I used your limiting valve as per instructions" said the plumber, to which the technician replied "but the max inlet pressure to the valve has to be 500kPa or under".
"show me where it says that" the plumber replied, and they couldnt find anywhere on the instructions or the valve that said the max inlet pressure to the valve had to be 500kPa blah blah blah.
Long story short, the plumber seeked out advice from the master plumbers assoc., who put together a team of officials from SAI global and waterboard inspectors and went to court with the manufacturer, who was found negligent for not specifying the max pressure in their instructions etc. and had to cough up a neww hardwood floor, new kitchen as the cabinets had swelled, and new carpet for the dining room and hall.

Originally Posted by silentC

I'll check ours because if it's one of those NEFA brand ones I'll get him to replace it.

Is NEFA not a good brand?