1/2" cpvc causes low water pressure?

[sylercider]

I'm renovating an old beach house.

I recently replaced some of the rusty galvanized pipe with 1/2" cpvc piping. Now my water pressure is pretty low. After the fact, I learned that it's probably due to the 1/2" cpvc not allowing enough water to flow through.

I can't re-replace all of the 1/2" cpvc because some of it's now buried in walls. I can replace about 90% of it with 3/4" cpvc (or whatever will help my pressure), but the last few feet for each faucet/shower will still be 1/2" cpvc.

Will that help?

 

[havasu]

Are you certain the low pressure is a result of the additional CPVC, or is it possible when you disrupted the rusty galvanized pipes that you broke sediment loose, and is clogging the valves and faucet screens?

 

[sylercider]

I did think about the fact that maybe I dislodged some sediment, too. I took off the screen at the kitchen faucet (which has the worst cold and hot water pressure) and it looked clean and the pressure was still low with the screen off. Now, that doesn't mean that maybe some large piece of sediment is stuck somewhere in the cpvc pipe.

So, 1/2" cpvc might not be the reason for the low water pressure? Maybe I just need to bang on each pipe to release the sediment?

One more bit of info. I installed an outdoor shower with 1/2" pvc, not cpvc, and it also has pretty low water pressure. Maybe there's a problem at the main water line? The shut off valve, not the city's shut off valve but another valve right at my house, is pretty rusty and has slime growing on it from a miniscule leak. Maybe that's the source of my problem?

 

[Chris]

Try taking the supply lines off the valves under the sink and flush them out. We have had problems with larger chunks getting stuck in there.