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Author:
timothy_nd28 (IN)
Hello,
I'm doing a custom shower for a friend, and wanted to verify with the pro's if this plumbing idea of mine will work before I rough it in. Essentially there will be 3 body jets on the front wall and three body jets on the rear wall. I have volume controls on each loop, so one "could" isolate the front and back or have both walls of body jets enabled. It would be nice to figure out a way to have a balancing pipe returning from the backwall of bodyjets that connects the front wall, but this would cause a back feeding condition if the rear wall body jets were turned off, unless a check valve was installed?
Thanks in advance
Tim
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Author:
packy (MA)
why do you have a 4 way diverter along with volume controls?
it may sound complicated but it is fool proof to have...
one thermostatically controlled 3/4 inch shower valve with integral check valves. this is set to a desired temperature and left on all the time.
four volume controls.. one each for..
rain head shower up on the ceiling
personal shower near a seat for shaving legs
two banks of body sprays
......................
so, 3/4 to the main shower valve and 1/2 inch to other outlets.
you don't need the bottom of the rectangle for the body sprays.
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Author:
Paul48 (CT)
Verify you have enough gpm at pressure to support all the spray heads.
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Author:
packy (MA)
while you are at it, make sure the water heater has enough capacity. (common problem)
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Author:
timothy_nd28 (IN)
City water (pretty close to the pump house) 60 psi is being fed into the house via 3/4" pipe. Keeping the 3/4" pipe going to the shower valve, I should have atleast 20 GPM going thru this valve. However, this is all bottle necked at the diverter valve, as all the ports are only 1/2". I'm assuming that I will be flowing around 10-12 GPM out of one of these ports of the diverter valve (using copper pipe only). Having 6 body sprays, assuming they are restricted at 2.5GPM, puts me at 15 GPM which is at the upper limits of delivery of the diverter valve.
The water heater is another confounding variable, it's only a 50 gallon unit. IF my friend were to run both banks of body sprays at the same time, this would draw 15 GPM, (7.5 gallons of hot water and 7.5 gallons of cold water) which will deplete his water heater in 6.66 minutes, if the shower valve temperature was set to a 1:1 ratio. I could either tell him to take quick showers or talk him into installing a 2nd water heater in parallel to the first one.
The picture posted above of the diverter valve was incorrect, the one I have ordered is actually one port in and 4 ports out (no shared ports). I was planning to have a shower head on the main wall as position number one on the diverter valve. The second shower head would be on the rear wall and will be plumbed to position two of the diverter valve. Position 3 of the diverter valve would be plumbed to the hand wand thing. The last position of the diverter valve, position 4, would go to both front and rear walls of body sprays. I was thinking by adding two volume controls after the diverter valve on position 4, would give you extra control by giving the user the option of turning off the body sprays on the front wall, directing all flow to the rear wall of 3 body sprays, or turning off the rear wall body sprays, which will direct all flow to the front wall of body sprays, or turning on both volume controls, which will turn on the body sprays for the front and rear wall. I know that I'm over complicating this setup!!!
It's a no brainer setting this up with no diverter valve, and just use volume controls for everything. But that would be a lot of volume controls! This shower would look like a mechanical room in some nuclear submarine, and my friend would need a manual just to figure out what valve does what. lol
I'm a fan of this diverter valve, as it might be more user friendly with a elegant look.
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Author:
steve (CA)
In your calculation, you can't say there will be 50 gallons of hot water available for the shower. There will be about 2/3 of that amount, because the incoming cold water into the heater will mix with the hot and cool it down.
That's why during a long shower, you have to turn the ratio of hot water up, to maintain the temperature you started with.
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Author:
hj (AZ)
I would just come out of the volume controls to the middle head and tee up and down for the other two. A balancing loop is ridiculous for a simple setup like that.
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Author:
hj (AZ)
quote; There will be about 2/3 of that amount, because the incoming cold water into the heater will mix with the hot and cool it down.
But unless he is using ALL hot water, the cold water mixing at the faucet will restore the capacity.
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Author:
Paul48 (CT)
You might want to fill a 5 gallon bucket and time it, to check the gpm. Also, consider what will happen when someone flushes a toilet. That 60 psi may drop to 10. You may have to install a booster to maintain a constant pressure.
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Author:
timothy_nd28 (IN)
In addition of telling my friend to take short showers, I'll add the rule of nobody flushing toliets while someone is taking a shower! lol
Thanks guys
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