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Flexible braided hose connector - Cause of Low Pressure?

Hoping to get opinions here. I have noticed that my ensuite vanity tap takes very long, approximately 1+ min, before the hot water is emitted. Hot water unit is gas heated tank storage. The shower in the same ensuite doesn't seem to be as annoying, taking about 20-30 seconds to produce hot water. I suspect the flexible braided hose from the water mains to the vanity tap is the culprit. It has a bent elbow with a small diameter and I'm wondering if that has an effect.

I could've easily tested with a different flexible braided hose but the end attached to the tap is proving difficult to undo and I thought I'd get an opinion before attempting to wrestle with it in a tight space.

Thanks in advance.

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Jason

Hi @qeff,

That does sound frustrating! I hope that Workshop members can assist. Let me also extend a very warm welcome to the community. It's great to see you make your first post and I hope it's the first of many. Feel free to post anytime about your projects and plans.

All the best,

Jason

royq

Hi @qeff,

It could be the flexi causing the problem, it wouldn't be low pressure so much but low flow. I had the same issue a few years back with a water saving shower head that was reducing the flow from 17 Lpm to 9 Lpm or something, the hot water took a long time to come through. You could run a quick flow test with a bucket to see how much water comes out of the hot tap in the vanity in 20 seconds verses how much comes out of the hot tap in the shower in 20 seconds. That'll tell you whether or not it's a flow problem.

I think the answer is closer to the surface though. How close is your water heater to that bathroom? And do you know how far back the shower or vanity is teed off? Do the pipes run past the back of the shower to the vanity?

Cheers, Roy

MartyH

Do people use these in Australia? Sound like a good idea.

https://www.askthebuilder.com/hot-water-recirculating-pumps/

qeff

Thanks Jason

qeff

Thanks for your suggestion @royq. I just did a test and both the vanity and shower produce 1L of water (when turned to the hot side of mixer) in about the same time: 13.5s to 13.9s. I'm now stumped as to why the vanity tap takes forever to produce hot water but the shower is so much quicker. I actually had a plumber here once and he agreed that the vanity's hot water output seems a lot later.

The ensuite is about 15m away from the water tank. The vanity has two sinks by the way but the low flow is evident with just one tap in use. Since the shower is further away from the water tank, I believe the pipes are tee'd off at the back of the vanity and terminate at the shower mixer.

The kitchen mixer is only 2m from the water tank and heater and that also takes around 13.5s to fill 1L. However the hot water comes out almost instantaneously at 8s vs the vanity's 1+ min.

royq

@qeff, so one sink gets hot water faster than the other? Are they flick mixers or all separate taps?

Roy

qeff

Hi @royq, they are all mixers of the same brand. The two vanity mixers take much longer than the shower mixer in the same bathroom which led me to think there's something up with the hose connector(s).

royq

@qeff it's a strange one for sure, the mixers sometimes have issues with the washer not opening fully on just one side of the tap (hot or cold only), there is a thread on it here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4691085. I'm not certain but this could be the problem.

The hose connection shouldn't be what's causing the issue, because at regular town water pressures in Australia (NSW anyway) 8mm pipe compared to 12mm pipe should still be getting decent flow.

Cheers, Roy

qeff

@royq, thanks for the suggestion and the link. It is indeed a strange one. I might need to swap out the braided hose or swap the mixer to troubleshoot.

Tara86

Hi Marty - I work for a company called Rinnai and we have a product called a Smartstart. This is used with our Continuous Flow Hot water units - controlled by our water controllers or a momentary switch if installed with solar.

When turned on it’s forces all the water in the loop to recirculate through the hot water unit so that when you turn on any outlet you’ll have instant hot water. It helps save water especially any outlets located at the end of loop.

qeff

Great suggestion! Will check it out

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