Watts Pressure Reducer For House Water: One Screw Turn = psi ?

[Robert11]

Hello,

Have the typical Watts Pressure reducing valve on the incoming line for my house water.

It's hard to read the label, but I think it is a model USB Z3 Range is given as 25-75 psi

Town says the incoming line pressure is about 70 psi. Reducer was set at the factory for an outlet p of 50 psi.

Looked on the Watts site but they seem to have every spec but this one.

Anyone know the scale factor for how much the outlet pressure would be increased for, e.g., 1 full turn of the adj. screw ?

Thanks, Bob

[Kevin Ricks]

Don't know much about them but I think it would depend on the input pressure. I wouldn't even expect one unit to be exactly the same as the next. I wouldn't even expect to get the same reading 2x on the same unit... Buy a pressure gauge

[George]

A gage is the only real way to tell. Not sure why corners are cut when installing regulators. All it takes is to sweat in a tee and attach a gage.

[Steve Barker]

there's no set amount for each turn. Also, if the line is only 70 psi, why have a regulator?

s

[Bubba]

You need a gauge to read it. Dont forget, if you have an expansion tank installed on your water heater or system, you need to set that to the pressure of the system. Bubba

[Don & Lucille]

[Big_Jake]

I'm with Steve on this one. Why would you have a regulator when you have 70 psi from the street. Does it fluctuate to say 100 psi at times?

How low to you really want to set it?

JK

[George]

But he doesn't know what he has at the street. Someone just threw a nominal number at him. Even if it actually is 70 PSI that is still on the high side. I have ours set at 50 PSI and I can't remember the last time I needed to repair anything. Also system water pressure is quite dynamic. I have gauges on both the incoming and outgoing sides of the regulator. There are a number of occasions where I happened to take a quick look and the street side was at 120 PSI.

[Big_Jake]

He said the town told him 70 psi. Ours is 90 psi from the street, and, in 5 years we have never had anything fail from the high pressure. The water main in the street has failed 3-4 times, though. :-)

JK

[The Daring Dufas]

I replaced a failed one inch regulator at a service station one time because all the Sloan flush valves in the restrooms were blowing out and the washers in the sinks were also failing. The static pressure was

190 psi with spikes going off scale. The unregulated outdoor water hose would knock you down, it was bad news. You could run tramps off with it.

TDD