hey guys,
Im trying to rehab an old system I inherited....and Im replacing a bunch of valves, and fixing a bunch of leaks. I wanted to gauge my PSI and flow rate, just to know what to expect in terms of performance when I fix everything back to where its supposed to be. My wife picked up a water pressure gauge for me at home depot, but damnit, its a cheapass orbit meter. The first time I hook it up, it fills with water...sigh....and I got readings varying from 80 to 96, all within 30 min, but the average was about 90 psi. So...dont know what to estimate for psi.
I went to the water meter, and haha...cant get it open, and the size of the meter isn't stamped on the box. Should I dynamite it open, or just estimate that its 5/8"? So.....also cant tell what size pipe is supplying the house, cuz I cant get in the meter. Theres no pipe visibly going into the house....the first pipe visible is coming out of the wall to the water softener in the garage, and its about 2 3/4-or 3 inches around...so this is a 3/4" copper line???
The Topper is when I tried to test he GPM. It took 35 seconds to fill a 5 gal. bucket. But, theres some kind of metal collar around the outside of the faucets outside the house. Stuck my finger in there, and theres a rubber nipple extending down from the faucet??? and the water is pretty aerated...so I dont know what the hell that is, and if thats restricting the flow, and giving me the horrible GPM estimate that Im getting which is like 8.5 GPM.
Frack...I couldnt have failed more miserably at this if I tried. Im going to start drinking heavily again.
HELP!