Water pressure problems - can anyone help please?

Any technicians out there or just some who knows anything about this subject please… I am a home haemo patient using a Nikisso machine currently doing daily SD. I am having problems with water pressure, it keeps flucuating and my RO machine is cutting out saying it’s low water pressure alarm. I live on the second floor of an appartment block. The water board have told me there is 30lbs of pressure coming in to the appartment block. The water pump for the appartment people have comne out to check its working efficently and they have assured me its working and set it for between 2.8 bars and 5 bars of pressure. My machine needs between 1.5 bars and 5 bars of pressure to work. I have been dialysing at home for approx 4.5 months now and have not had this problem before. Heres what I don’t understand, why is this happening now, could there be a problem with the RO (although my technician assures me there isn’t and he showed me on an external as opposed to the machines gauge, I don’t doubt him at all).I have dialysed at differnt times in the day so as not to dialyse at high usage peak times, to see if that makes any difference and it makes no sense. Yesterday I dialysed at peak 5pm to 8pm and got no alarms, today I dialysed between 11 and 2pm and I had 12 alarms of low water pressure in the last 40 mins. Ok if U need anymore info just ask. I hope U might have a sugesstion as to some solution I could try. At the moment moving house is on the horizon but thats pretty major. However I LOVE home haemo and the prospect of not being able to do it is terrifying.I was really hoping to start nocturnal dialysis but would keep the whole appartment block awake with alarms all night.
HELP HELP HELP!
Sinead

Sineadee,

I believe that 30lbs of water pressure is on the low side. I belive between 50-80 is the normal range. If you are on a second floor or higher, its going to reduce the pressure even further as the water travels to the location. For every 2.31 ft. of vertical climb in your water line, you lose a pound of water pressure. Thus water that enters the house at the basement level loses 11 lb. to 12 lb. by the time it travels to a second-floor showerhead. If your house water pressure is already at the low end—40 lb. would be low and 80 lb. would be high—this is a significant loss

Of course these numbers are statistics from the US. Not sure how things change over there in ireland or how everything is set up. 30lbs of pressure there may be a good pressure, but here in the US, it would be considered low. Also not sure if you have an RO system an dhow that would affect anything.

///MM

Firstly thankyou Miracleman for the reply.
I do have an RO machine connected to my Nikisso dialysis machine. There is also a water pump for the appartment block so that pressure is maintained in the upper floors. I can see a visible difference in the tap flow now since they upped the kick in pressure for the appartment pump… The force the water comes out at is definitely stronger, but the problem is its not a constant pressure. The flow of the water coming out of the tap (which is the same source my RO is plumbed into) moves over and back about an inch. It’s bizarre because if the pump kicks in at 2.8 bars why is it dropping to .03 bars, if as they say the pump is working efficiently. I am so frustrated by this and am afraid to go on my machine today incase it doesn’t work! Of course I have to dialyse, I know that. I am really losing hope here.

Dori hope it’s ok to post this as it’s a reply from another facebook dialysis group. But as I haven’t mentioned any names I assume it’s alright.
Hii all, my problem appears to have been sorted thankfully, so I am hugely relieved. All the team kicked into action so I am extremely greatful for their input. I am sitting here dialysing and loving the backround whirring sound from my fully functioning machine as I type.
I am posting this reply I got, incase anypne else has a water pressure problem, it may be useful to you.
’ Sinead, Because you are on the second floor of an apartment I would wager that several people share your water line. When they flush a toilet or turn on a faucet your pressure goes down below the minimum for the RO. What I have seen done in the past is the use of a break tank. A break tank is just a large tank with a “float valve” near the top. It lets water come in and fill it up and cuts off when the water level reaches the “float valve”. Attached to the tank is a small pump feeding your RO at the pressure it desires. A pressure relief valve and circuit should be in place so as to not over pressure your equipment.
I know this seems to be a lot but it isolates you from all of your neighbors water pressure and lets you have steady uninterrupted treatments. Hope this may help. "
Hope everyone’s having one of their good days or at least good moments as part of your day.
Bye for now
Sinead

Hi Sinead, I’m so glad you found an answer–and thank you for posting it so others who run into this problem may be able to use this, too. I had a question in to my resident water expert, but it looks like you beat us to it. :smiley: