56 minutes ago, John Carroll said:

I think its vital, before making any decisions, to get as much data as possible, expecially those two pressure gauge readings, more importantly, the lower one to see what the pump suction pressure is, its no good installing a second accumulator if the mains cannot supply the minimum pump suction head required. Would suggest getting you'r plumber to get these gauges "working" and clean the Y strainer.

 

As stated previously, 1.5bar/2.2bar precharge/charged pressures will give a (300L) accumulator output of 65.63L (present output?), if the charged pressure was at its design of 3.0bar then you will get a increase of over 71% to 112.5L, it might/would require a new charging pump but a charged pressure of 3.5bar will give a increase of over 100% to 133.3L and 4.0bar will give over 128% increase to 150L, as much as adding another 300L accumulator with a charging pressure of (both) of 2.33bar.

Ok thank you I will get onto them regarding this as sounds exciting if I could get those levels. 
 

thank you I will update 

31 minutes ago, texas said:

Ok thank you I will get onto them regarding this as sounds exciting if I could get those levels. 
 

thank you I will update 

Yup, get the basics worked out and then look at adding capacity. 
 

DO NOT just add another pump though!

14 hours ago, texas said:

i haven't yet i'm a bit unsure what to do.

Ok, first job is to get a pressure gauge on the end of the blue pipe bringing cold mains up to the attic. 
Do you have a pic of the other end of that blue pipe, eg at the ground floor stopcock?

 

Turn that off, disconnect the cold feed in the attic, put a pressure gauge on it and see what the static standing pressure is on the mains. Let’s start there. 
 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/monument-tools-mains-water-pressure-test-gauge-11bar/82412?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD8IdPy5YHYzsMfKRwsac1otIxnYQ&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwO6Vm87ZiwMVv5FQBh2ahwdrEAQYAyABEgK5bvD_BwE

I think the blue pipe is that one which I’m pointing at behind all the copper pipes. 
 

im hesitant to start disconnecting things as I really am not very technical. 
 

 

Thanks. 
Yes, if you zoom in you can see the 15mm copper pipe with MAINS written on it, so I assume that converts to blue pipe (MDPE) and goes to the attic uninterrupted.

 

If you’re not comfortable messing with plumbing then please don’t! We don’t want your next thread to be about “which are the best wellies I can buy” lol.

 

Best you get a plumber in and you /we put together a list of the things that have been requested or suggested, and then go for a day of finding out what is going on and what is best to do to resolve it.

 

Do you have an outside tap that you could test the mains from the street with? I can only assume that the installers wouldn’t have put the outside tap after the booster.

hi yes we have an outside tap. But i believe that was fitted before the booster was fitted. 

4 minutes ago, texas said:

hi yes we have an outside tap. But i believe that was fitted before the booster was fitted. 

Ok. If it is off the cold mains from the street, then it can give you the first bit of info we need, eg the max static pressure you have prior to the booster / attic plumbing. From there we can make suggestions to maybe increase the pressure to the supply going to the pump. Even an uplift of 0.5bar would be a major jump, and should see the pump run time reduce massively whilst improving the recovery time from when the stored capacity is near to depleted.

 

I’ll have a look at the installation manual and see what that says about “tweaking”.

 

Grab that pressure gauge from screw fix and it should screw onto the outside tap. Take a reading with nothing drawing water in the house, and then take it back for a full refund. 👍

Ok. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you confirm if this upstream ‘line in kit’ is present / installed?

50 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Ok. If it is off the cold mains from the street, then it can give you the first bit of info we need, eg the max static pressure you have prior to the booster / attic plumbing. From there we can make suggestions to maybe increase the pressure to the supply going to the pump. Even an uplift of 0.5bar would be a major jump, and should see the pump run time reduce massively whilst improving the recovery time from when the stored capacity is near to depleted.

 

I’ll have a look at the installation manual and see what that says about “tweaking”.

 

Grab that pressure gauge from screw fix and it should screw onto the outside tap. Take a reading with nothing drawing water in the house, and then take it back for a full refund. 👍

Ok will do this 

29 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Can you confirm if this upstream ‘line in kit’ is present / installed?

How do I find this please? Cheers 

I don’t see any pressure reducing valves in the installation guide, so I’m now curious as to why you have them and why they’re set so low. 
 

I see what I think are non return valves (green defo, but not sure about blue), a Y strainer (red), and a PRedV (yellow), so we need to find out what’s supposed to be there, what’s not, and what could be causing issue. 
 

31 minutes ago, texas said:

How do I find this please? Cheers 

Not the foggiest. Can you find reference to it in any paperwork you have there? I am assuming it has been “recreated” by the plumber in the previous post. 

 

32 minutes ago, texas said:

Ok will do this 

Cool. We’re assuming the pressure that you read at the outside tap should be the same value as the lowest pressure gauge in the attic.

https://www.stuart-turner.co.uk/contentfiles/Mainsboost-Monobloc-IG.pdf
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi I’m a bit lost regarding what I’m trying to do above. But I have put this pressure gauge onto my outside tap and it reads. Roughly 1.8 

 

please note this tap is on ground level and my boiler is 3 floors higher in the loft. 
 

many thanks 

Ensure pump off, re attach the pressure gauge, note the pressure, start the pump, note the pressure, after say 5 minutes, switch the pump off, again note the pressure. Also note the pump head/pressure while running.

With pump off, open kitchen cold tap fully, then wait about 10 minutes, run it into a container for exactly 30 secs, measure this with a 1 litre container, X 2, to give the flowrate in LPM. Note pressures before and during test.

Edited February 25, 20251 yr by John Carroll

18 hours ago, texas said:

Hi I’m a bit lost regarding what I’m trying to do above. But I have put this pressure gauge onto my outside tap and it reads. Roughly 1.8 

 

please note this tap is on ground level and my boiler is 3 floors higher in the loft. 
 

many thanks 

Thanks. 
 

That’s quite low pressure, and that’s referred to as a static pressure test. Leave the gauge connected and get the pump to fire up by drawing off a chunk of water, then report back with what that gauge shows, where it is now, for the dynamic pressure test.

On 25/02/2025 at 07:26, John Carroll said:

Ensure pump off, re attach the pressure gauge, note the pressure, start the pump, note the pressure, after say 5 minutes, switch the pump off, again note the pressure. Also note the pump head/pressure while running.

With pump off, open kitchen cold tap fully, then wait about 10 minutes, run it into a container for exactly 30 secs, measure this with a 1 litre container, X 2, to give the flowrate in LPM. Note pressures before and during test.

hi thanks i will do this. May not be able to till saturday but will post data when i have it. 

Thanks again

19 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Thanks. 
 

That’s quite low pressure, and that’s referred to as a static pressure test. Leave the gauge connected and get the pump to fire up by drawing off a chunk of water, then report back with what that gauge shows, where it is now, for the dynamic pressure test.

Thanks i will do this on Saturday. Many thanks

 

Did the tests 

all very strange findings 

 

11.45 pump off pressure guage on outside tap reading 1.9 on guage

11.46 start pump reading 2.0 on guage

 

11.51 pump off reading 1.9 guage 

 

turned tap on in kitchen for 25 mins (as after 10 was running quite fast still)

 

12.16 

Guage reading still 1.9 guage

did the 30 second water test 2.4 litre in 30 seconds therefore 4.8 litres per minute 

 

Turned pump on guage still reads 1.9 

The pump which has been off for 25 mins reads 1.5 on the digital display! 
 

I have to assume that the kitchen and outside tap are off a different water line potentially? 
 

we have a water softener which softens everything but the kitchen tap could this be relevant? 
 

Cheers 

The pump digital display reads the pressure whether its on or off?, if so, identify some tap(s) hot or cold that are fed from the accumulator, with pump off, open one of these taps until the pressure stops falling, suggest a bath tap, if installed, as these normally give a high flow, note the pump pressure (pump off) and do that 30 sec test again with the bath tap, then shut it and see does the pump pressure rise (pump still off). 

41 minutes ago, John Carroll said:

The pump digital display reads the pressure whether its on or off?,

No it only reads the display when on.

 

ok I’ll do the test with the bath tap and report back 

 

thanks 

Also check to see if those two "frozen" pressure gauges change during that test.

So I turned the pump off (it was reading 2.1 on its digital display)

Let the water run out in the bath in the 2nd floor bathroom till limited flow. 

The 30 second test gave me 2.6 litres so 5.2 lpm. 
 

The 2 “frozen” gauges appear to be frozen as they remain where they have been throughout this process. 
 

I turned the pump back on and it was showing 0.6. 
 

Not sure if any of the above is significant? 
Thank you 

 

I think you said 3 floors up?, say 8M, 0.8bar anf if the outside tap pressure was still reading 1.9bar dynamic at a flowrate of 5.2LPM then the pressure drop upstairs is (1.9-0.8)-0.6, 0.5bar. 

Maybe repeat this test if you havn't observed the outside tap pressure during this last test. its most unlikely that you have two mains supplies from the "road" so also maybe do another test where you open multiple taps to give a total flowrate of ~ 10 to 15LPM, then see what the outside tap pressure falls to during this test, that should give a good idea of the mains supply pressure drop.