Water Pressure Regulator

[Ken]

I am contemplating the replacement of the water pressure regulator for my home. The measured pressure in my home is about 100 PSI and it is recommended that it be below 80 PSI. The current regulator is buried in the ground and covered with dirt. I know this because I had it replaced almost 30 years ago when the old one sprung a leak.

My question is this: Is there any good reason not to bury the regulator in the ground?? My first thought is that aside from being in an inaccessible location, it might deteriorate faster under ground and covered with dirt although it is brass. On the other side, it has been in that location for 30 years and it would be less work to simply replace it where it current is. Any thoughts???

[WW]

Why not leave it there if you show 100psi and add one in series inside the house where water line enters? WW

[jamesgangnc]

My pressure is often over 100. I know lots of other people that have pressure higher than 80. Don't kno wthat I would worry about it unless you have previous plumbing problems with pipe that has issues.

[dpb]

jamesgangnc wrote: ...

That's generally a cause for frequent toilet valve failures in particular as well as unneeded pressure tending to raise amount of water used.

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[Nonny]

I'd just locate the line inside the house and install a new one there. In my own case, we had a house with >120psi at the meter, so I maintained that pressure until inside the house. Before (upstream) from the pressure regulator, I installed a Tee and used that to connect up a loop running around the home's perimeter for the sill hydrants. That gave me great pressure for the garden hose when washing a car, for instance, while I had the much tamer pressure to toilets and faucets.

By the way, when you install the new regulator or adjust pressure, don't forget to adjust the float level in your toilet if it's the old ball-on-a-rod type.

Nonny

[salty]

Awfully hard on the plumbing, and especially on boilers, washing machines and water heaters. It also results in significantly higher water usage.

[DerbyDad03]

If you take the advice of others and install a PRV in series with the existing one, consider it's placement carefully.

Both of my hose spigots are before the PRV so I have street pressure to my hoses. Great for washing the car, watering the gardens and blasting my cat.

[Ken]

Why would the float level in the toilet be a factor? Wouldn't it still turn off at the same point??

[Nonny]

The traditional float on a rod-type of valves rely on the side of the rod opposite the fulcrum to depress a ball or washer against the incoming water to stop the flow. If there is more water pressure, more counterpressure is needed, resulting in more float needing to be submerged. By increasing water pressure, you will risk a higher water level in the tank, frequently resulting in draining continually down the refill tube into the bowl.

The better ones, nowadays, don't rely on counterpressure directly to stop the flow. Of the ones I've used, the Korky brand is my preference. In fact, after replacing an older Fluidmaster here in the house with the Korky one, I swapped them all out for Korky, preferring the much faster fill rate.

Nonny

[Tony Hwang]

Hmmm, That is weird. Our regulator is in the basement near the meter. I keep the running pressure at 60 psi.

[Ken]

I was considering moving the regulator from its current location (buried underground) to the crawl space to which the output of the regulator runs. I guess it would be safer to have the regulator outside of the house (although the crawl space would seem unlikely to incur damage if it started to leak) but it sure would be easier to replace in the future.

I was just wondering if others had their regulator elsewhere and if there were any drawbacks to having it elsewhere. I have a feeling that living in the south allows putting the regulator in the ground due to the shallow frost line. Doing so in the north would probably not work unless you dug really deep.

[jamesgangnc]

If you adjust it for your water pressure then it doesn't matter. Besides you are talking about less than in inch of height in the tank one way or another.

[Nonny]

Yes, that was my original point. If you change the water pressure, the older style tank valves need to be adjusted.

Right. Using your "one inch" difference, an inch lower might mean an incomplete flush and an inch higher could be a continuous flow down the refill tube. It's better to adjust the tank's water height when you modify the water pressure.

Nonny

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Indeed. Our frost line is at least 6 feet deep. Houses here have full basement with drain.