Thanks for all the info. I have some 3/4" hose on the way. Yes we are running through the reel so we will change that and add the camlocks too. Will also try eliminating the filter on the supply line. It would be nice if all this helps out. It’s weird. Some houses the buffer tank is full when we are done, others it is empty after 10 min and we are waiting on water. A bigger buffer tank would be nice, but no more room on this truck.
Only time I ever ran out of water was when I got lazy and just connected my hose to the 100 ft of hose the customer already had at the spigot. I realized pretty quickly what all that additional length and smaller diameter do to flow rate…
I now run with 100’ and 50’ sections. But I would do away with 50’ and go with 75’ as rarely will 50’ be able to do the job. Maybe a spare 25’ or two.
What’s the size limit on the diameter of the supply hose for maximizing flow? 5/8 is better than 1/2, 3/4 is better than 5/8. Take it to a ridiculous extreme. Say you had the necessary fittings to connect a 100’ section of fire hose between the spigot and the buffer tank.
I can visualize things but don’t have the academic background or experience in the field to work out the answer. There’s a constant pressure at the spigot, but as the diameter of the hose connected to it increases, there’s a larger mass of water that has to be pushed. At some point doesn’t it become too much? Kind of like saying you can push more snow with a wider snow shovel, but at some point there’s so much snow collected in front of the shovel that it outweighs your ability to push it.
At some point you’re only going to get the volume that can flow through the size of the hose bib’s internal restrictions at the pressure available at that house. Ideally the house is plumbed with 3/4" to every fixture, but more likely it drops down to 1/2" on most.
If you hooked up a 3" hose and a 3/4" hose to the same spigot, you likely wouldn’t see an increase in flow. That being said, the shorter and straighter you can make your hose-to-buffer, the better.
An easier way to visualize it is that you’ll never get better flow than opening the hose-bib into a bucket. 3/4 will easily carry 7gpm at 100’, you’ll rarely come across better supply from a house
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I checked my flow at home just about an hour ago. I couldn’t get the 5 gal bucket right up under the spigot, but I did have a 5/8" dia. 3’ leader hose. It took 40 secs to overflow the bucket. I don’t know if it’s 5 gal right up to the top edge, or a little bit below as there wasn’t any marking on it. That’s roughly 7.5 GPM or a little more.
I repeated the test with a 50’ 5/8" hose and it took 10 sec longer to fill.
My house is plumbed as you said, 3/4" to each spigot, but the spigot opening itself is definitely smaller than 3/4".
Way to much overthinking going on here
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3/4 pex or 3/4 copper? You’ve got good flow, you’ll be lucky to get that at half the houses you go to. Bottom line is, if you need faster filling at your buffer, @PristineGC laid it out perfectly for you. Go up to 3/4, take your hose off the reel, ditch the supply filter
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Copper.
I was joking a little there, sorry. Run 3/4, ditch anything that isn’t a hose, shortest/straightest lengths you can get away with. That’s the best you can do.
*Edit: that’s the best you can do without getting set up to run off of a hydrant
I have the best of both worlds. I have my (1”) reel plumbed with camlocks, and the ability to bypass the reel when needed. There are a lot of jobs I do where I can save myself from unreeling much hose, or going through the trouble of disconnecting and reconnecting sections of hose.
I would like to get my hands on some 3/4” flexzilla, though.
If that chart is accurate then I must have horrible PSI. I got 7.5 GPM with THREE FEET of 5/8" hose. That chart says 22 GPM with 50’.
72 GPM with 25’ of 3/4" ??? That’s filling up a 5 gal bucket in under 5 seconds. Never seen flow even remotely like that in my life.
The only places I’ve seen it are Amazon and Southside Eq.
You’re only going to get what your local water department can supply. Those numbers on the chart are just max flow rate. There are a lot of variables that come into play when it comes to gpm for each house. Even elevation from your local water tower to your house makes a difference. It also depends how many other households are using water at the time. My house has 50 psi and I get 8 gpm. That’s pretty good psi and you rarely see much more than that. I think 60 psi is about the max.
Your 7.5 gpm at the bib isn’t bad. I was at a job today and only had about a 50’ run and I had to stop and wait for water 3 times. They were on a well though.
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Brian is right, 7 gpm from a hose bib is excellent, and about as good as you can hope for. All the other measurements in these replies have been about what happens after the hose bib, to help you maximize flow to your buffer.
You’re thinking too much about this.
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