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I’ve a customer who has just 4.5 psi water pressure. His old washer worked OK although took a long time to fill. He’s concerned that because of the fill time outs on modern washing machines he may have big problems.
I can’t imagine every washing machine allows exactly the same time for a fill before timing out but it’s not the kind of info freely available so it’s hard to advise which make to try. Do we know of any that are particularly tollerant of slow fill times, or even still controlled by mechanical timers that don’t have time outs?
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
andy_art_trigg wrote:I’ve a customer who has just 4.5 psi water pressure.
The statutory minimum level of water mains pressure is set at and agreed by all local water authorities @ 1 bar/10 metres head. Roughly speaking that is 15 p.s.i. Unless your customer is not on mains then they should expect that minimum pressure.
Most washing machines are based on such a minimum in order for them to operate with todays electronic control systems. Especially as most if not all now are cold water only and in order for the fabric conditioner to operate correctly means it requires 2 converging jets of water to operate. Without that pressure not even that will work 🙁
Now if the machine is gravity fed, then a power pump will be the only answer 😉
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
The only info I can find in manufacturers literature is in the Bosch catalogue. They state ” water pressure required 1-10 bar, flow rate 8 litres per minute”.
HTH
Don
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
Unfortunately the customer has quoted me in psi which I can’t correlate with the bars system. If you are right Martin, then his problem is serious as he thinks the recommended is half the 15 psi you mention.
His supply is from, “a private borehole supply, pumped to cistern in the loft”. I’m thinking of recommending Miele, at least to contact them and see if they think their washing machine would work. If I remember right, their engineers can adjust things like water levels.
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
On a Miele you can set different parameters in the programmes, set different water levels, change time of fill, although i’ve had problems with borehole supplies in that the water is quite dirty, the dispensers collect gunge every year os so. I work with a lot of clients that have private borehole pumps, some of my work is in rural Ireland & there isn’t always mains water supply.
One thing i would recommend is that the customer fits a pressure vessel on the water system & a filter. This should ensure that water is not blocking up dispenser & inlet filters & that they have decent pressure. I see from your post that the client has a tank in the attic this should give a head of pressure depending on how high it is above machine & how much water is in tank!Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
Thanks. Am I right in thinking that the header tank will also help filter the water a little through settlement? What’s a pressure vessel btw, and what does it do?
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
andy_art_trigg wrote:What’s a pressure vessel btw, and what does it do?
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
Martin wrote:
andy_art_trigg wrote:
I’ve a customer who has just 4.5 psi water pressure.The statutory minimum level of water mains pressure is set at and agreed by all local water authorities @ 1 bar/10 metres head. Roughly speaking that is 15 p.s.i. Unless your customer is not on mains then they should expect that minimum pressure.
Most washing machines are based on such a minimum in order for them to operate with todays electronic control systems. Especially as most if not all now are cold water only and in order for the fabric conditioner to operate correctly means it requires 2 converging jets of water to operate. Without that pressure not even that will work 🙁
Now if the machine is gravity fed, then a power pump will be the only answer 😉
The pressure on a tank fed supply should be 0.43 PSI for every foot the tank level is above the fill valve level on the appliance. if the pressure is only 4.5 PSI this would indicate a tank level of only about 10 feet, is the dwelling a Bungalow and if so, this has been a common problem for many years.
When I was “on the road” the solution was to take out the flow restrictor in the cold fill valve, it was pushed into the valve body behind the valve filter.
This low pressure also caused many cases of flooding caused by “valve dribble”, as the pressure was not high enough to keep the valve firmly shut.
Shane
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
He said it’s in the loft. maybe the washer’s upstairs though.
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
I advised him to take the flow restrictor out of the inlet valve, but he said it won’t come out. I’ve never tried on a Miele, and as it’s such a new and expensive machine I was reluctant to advise him to use more force.
Does anyone know if the flow restrictors come out on the Miele water valves ?
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
Ooh – a hat-trick of posts – is this a record? 😛
Customer bought a new Miele washing machine despite being told by the salesman it would never work. Not being able to remove the flow restrictor (as mentioned in my last, pre hat-trick post) I advised him to try the machine anyway. He’s pleased to report it works OK.
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
andy_art_trigg wrote: He’s pleased to report it works OK.
Deep joy on that 🙂
By the way, the ISE machine works very nicely on low water pressure too, oh yes 😉
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
Martin wrote:By the way, the ISE machine works very nicely on low water pressure too, oh yes 😉
Thanks Martin 🙂 – you could have told me before I recommended a Miele though. I mean, that was the reason I titled the thread “Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?” :bang:
Re: Any washing machines that work with low water pressure?
Ah :lesson:
But I didn’t know that until I turned the wick down on my ISE machine recently just to see 😉
My humble little shack in the woods is lovingly provided water by Thames Water. They (bless their hearts :rolls: ) maintain a constant pressure to my domicile of just 1 bar (approx 15 psi) and that is barely sufficient to pass through my domestic water softener unit. But when it does the pressure is reduced considerably. My little ISE baby feeds straight off the softener but the moment someone uses the sink or the shower or even flushes the loo, the fill rate slows considerably (obviously) 😉 BUT unlike my Bosch machine, the ISE keeps on going at a fair rate and still takes the fabric conditioner away during those stressfull times. 8)
When I read your topic, I got to thinking “Just how low can my ISE go?” But then I never bothered to check until last weekend when I was doing some other ‘tests’ on it. I turned the stopcock down by 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} (ish) and it still filled OK. Yet another unscientific experiment, so much so I didn’t think it worth mentioning – but since you asked Andy, there you have it 🙂
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