Recent Experience Adding Water Booster Pumps?

My new rental has very low water pressure on the second floor, both hot and cold. In fact, the water runs so slowly that the hot water line looses all of its heat on its long slow process up the pipe through all the masonry.

Has anybody had recent experience adding a pump and pressure tank after the tinaco? I'm looking for suggestions on equipment and a good plumber/electrician who can install it properly.

Thanks

Call Jose Martinez.

765-3297
333-174-1282
331-152-1369

He will diagnose the problem and give you his recommendation.

Feret, I presume you mean that the pump runs on single phase. Here in Mexico each phase is rated at 127 volts with an up to 10% variance allowed.

Just to confuse things. Because we have three phase circuits instead of 2 phase. Each phase is 120 degrees out of phase with the other, not 180 degrees.

This means that two 127 phase circuits provide 87% of what a two phase system would and two 127 phase circuts hooked together provides 220 volts

ferret wrote:http://igoto.com.mx/pumps/presurizador.html
This is the little pressure pump that I had installed to add line pressure to the Tinaco in the summer of 2016. Mine is the 1/6 but I would have preferred the 1/3.
It turns on automatically when the water runs... is very quiet... is an all in one... runs on 110 volts...is much more reasonably priced than a separate external pump (which is incredibly noisy) and a pressure tank.
Bring it to the attention of the above plumber because I wouldn't recommend the guy who installed mine.

Yes, I saw that little pump at the water store next to Christiana pharmacy. It looks like it is primarily used to boost the hot water side for a single shower or sink. I agree that the 1/6 hp unit might be too small for my needs as it would need to pump the water from the heater all the way up to the 2nd floor, and I'm not sure about how much pressure might be left after that long travel. Big advantage is that it's easy to install and it might be the only solution the landlord would approve.

Thanks for the tip on the plumber too.

Sorry Ferret. Too often we northerners say 110, because that is what we called it up north. These days up north I get 120 volts. and down here 127 volts.

Yes it works. That is all that counts.

We have a pump with tank on one house, an auto on / off 1/3 hp electric bomba after the tinaco on another home. The latter is my preference. Quite, cheaper and less parts to foul up.

Just wondered how too much coffee got on.
Im thinking of installing something similar.

I had Jose Martinez install a pump for me and it works perfectly. I didn't even notice a bump in my electric bill.

ferret wrote:http://igoto.com.mx/pumps/presurizador.html
This is the little pressure pump that I had installed to add line pressure to the Tinaco in the summer of 2016. Mine is the 1/6 but I would have preferred the 1/3.

Thank you very much for the link.  Many sellers publish a maximum output for the pump but say little about how much output one can achieve if you have to pump the water up, which is my case.  This link included a chart.

Thanks to an article by Brad Greive, one can achieve approx. 1 psi for every 2 feet drop from the tinaco.  Based on that, I only get about 2 psi at my 2nd story shower head.  No wonder water flow is so bad!

I still haven't made a decision on what to do, but my landlord did give me permission to install a roof top pump.  So, my solution can range from a simple booster pump at the water heater all the way up to a full house system.

I found a Guadalajara supplier with a large range of pumps,
https://hidroshop.mx/categoria/sistemas-de-presion-y-bombeo/sistemas-de-presion/presurizadores-residenciales/

Defarge wrote:We have a pump with tank on one house, an auto on / off 1/3 hp electric bomba after the tinaco on another home. The latter is my preference. Quite, cheaper and less parts to foul up.

Is the "1/3 hp electric bomba after the tinaco" tank less?  Do you feel 1/3 hp is powerful enough?

My house has 2 levels with a tinaco on the roof, 2-1/2 baths, kitchen, and clothes washer.

This is not recent but about 6 years ago I purchased a small pump at Fabrica de Francia that was easily installed in the line where the water was coming out of the tank on the roof and before the split to the hot and cold lines. I just ran an extension cord and plugged it in. I don't know the size of it but it helped a lot and I finally had decent water pressure in the house.

Airchamby wrote:This is not recent but about 6 years ago I purchased a small pump at Fabrica de Francia that was easily installed in the line where the water was coming out of the tank on the roof and before the split to the hot and cold lines.  I just ran an extension cord and plugged it in.  I don't know the size of it but it helped a lot and I finally had decent water pressure in the house.

I'm thinking of using a 1/2 hp pump and 24 liter tank made by Truper which is available locally and on line.  Does anybody have experience using this brand pump?



A Mexicano friend of mine from Guad. recommends I use a Pedrollo brand pump (made in Italy), sold at Home Depot.