Crazy County Water Pressure

Beltzington · Apr 9, 2019

A neighbor stopped by this morning to borrow my hose bib water pressure gauge and out of curiosity I hooked it up to the unregulated side of my place and it was 150PSI ! He lives down the hill from me so his pressure would be even higher.

It is likely a lot of you would love a little more water pressure but this is bordering unsafe, the county is sticking to it is the home owners problem. As far as I could determine it is a strictly gravity feed system, does the county truly have no way to limit max pressure on a gravity feed system?

MossRoad · Apr 9, 2019

Beltzington said:
A neighbor stopped by this morning to borrow my hose bib water pressure gauge and out of curiosity I hooked it up to the unregulated side of my place and it was 150PSI ! He lives down the hill from me so his pressure would be even higher.

It is likely a lot of you would love a little more water pressure but this is bordering unsafe, the county is sticking to it is the home owners problem. As far as I could determine it is a strictly gravity feed system, does the county truly have no way to limit max pressure on a gravity feed system?

Think about the logistics of that. Unless your town is perfectly flat, and the buildings all have the same number of stories, it can't be done at the source. So they provide enough pressure to reach the highest point and regulate down from there at the endpoints.

Industrial Toys · Apr 9, 2019

Is that even possible? I would get a second (gauge) opinion. Not much domestic plumbing stuff would even withstand that. Hope you shut off your clothes washer taps!

MAD777 · Apr 9, 2019

When local government revenues are running low, they increase the water pressure to sell more water. In droughts, they lower the pressure to conserve water. It has a significant effect system wide. Follow the money, LOL.

EddieWalker · Apr 9, 2019

Toilets have the weakest water valves and will allow thousands of gallons to run through them when the pressure is too high. 60 pounds is ideal. 80 is borderline and higher then I would feel comfortable with. You are at extreme danger stage. I wouldnt be able to sleep at night with water pressure that high.

Deere Dude · Apr 9, 2019

MAD777 said:
When local government revenues are running low, they increase the water pressure to sell more water. In droughts, they lower the pressure to conserve water. It has a significant effect system wide. Follow the money, LOL.

How can they lower or raise the water pressure? My understanding is it is regulated by tower height. The higher the tower compared to where you live will tell you the pressure. A one foot higher tower will give you an extra .433# pressure. so if you live in a valley or a hole someplace you could have somewhat higher pressure than your neighbors. It needs to be regulated at the home.

My pressure at the meter is 135 but after the regulator under the house is 60.

The one foot column exerts 0.433 pounds per square inch of pressure.
One pound per square inch (psi) of pressure can be created using a 1-in. square column of water nearly 28 inches or 2.31 feet high.

Industrial Toys · Apr 9, 2019

That hardly makes sense, given the height of some towers, say 200 feet. So 460 pounds and more if you live down hill?

jaxs · Apr 9, 2019

I've never seen 150psi but it's not unusual to see extreme pressure on rural systems. Pressure regulators are inexpensive so I believe it's the best way of insuring system wide pressure.

MossRoad · Apr 9, 2019

Yes, you may have high water pressure. Put that meter on the spigot, then open a faucet in your house, turn on the bathtub, flush a toilet, etc... and watch the pressure.

Also, don't most houses that have municipal water have a pressure limiting device in or just after the water meter? Our house in the city did.

cat fever · Apr 9, 2019

The pressure can be regulated with a PRV. Most homeowners on public systems need PRV's. If you are on a private well no regulator is needed. (PRV=pressure reducing valve)

Beltzington · Apr 9, 2019

I installed a pressure regulator set at 70psi for my house 3-4 years ago when I started blowing hoses and damaging valves, back then line pressure would peak at 110-125. I left the yard side unregulated as wife often has three or four sprinklers running at the same time. We have had at least a dozen main water line breaks in the last 5-years and the Water Department manger actually called me back to answer my questions. Nice guy, said they had laid a new water main several years ago but had never been funded to cut-over from the old main line which is over 30-years old. I have seen allot of county equipment digging along side my road so maybe they are finally making the change. Could be pressure will go back down when they are finished, I just found it odd it would be so high, it's not likely the tower grew 10-feet.

Arky217 · Apr 9, 2019

Deere Dude said:
How can they lower or raise the water pressure? My understanding is it is regulated by tower height. The higher the tower compared to where you live will tell you the pressure. A one foot higher tower will give ypu an extra 2.31# pressure. so if you live in a valley or a hole someplace you could have much higher pressure than your neighbors. It needs to be regulated at the home.

My pressure at the meter is 135 but after the regulator under the house is 60.

1 foot of water = 2.31 psi ?

Unless gravity or the density of water has changed,
it's still 27.6799 inches of water = 1 psi.

Industrial Toys · Apr 9, 2019

As soon as someone says RURAL, I think customer owned well and pump.

My problem is, low pressure on a jet pump, which at the low end will not refill a water softener brine tank (two now). I need to refill the brine tank manually. I was thinking of installing a second pressure switch that is engaged when the softener does its recharge and keeps pressure at the higher limits for the duration. ACTUALLY, it might not be a bad scheme for other things, like taking a shower.

lilranch2001 · Apr 9, 2019

I think the first hing I would do is to confirm the accuracy of your gauge

RNeumann · Apr 9, 2019

The county system is designed to deliver good pressure to everyone. It would be your responsibility to reduce that pressure down if you so desire. If you feel the county is “sticking it to you” call them up and have them shut your water off.
Typically TBNers are the self sufficient type. Hopefully this is just a lack of knowledge. If that’s the case let THNers know and they can get you up to speed on pressure regulators. It’s a common plumbing part and something a lot of places use.

Beltzington · Apr 9, 2019

RNeumann said:
The county system is designed to deliver good pressure to everyone. It would be your responsibility to reduce that pressure down if you so desire. If you feel the county is 都ticking it to you call them up and have them shut your water off.
Typically TBNers are the self sufficient type. Hopefully this is just a lack of knowledge. If that痴 the case let THNers know and they can get you up to speed on pressure regulators. It痴 a common plumbing part and something a lot of places use.

Have you read the thread?

lilranch2001 · Apr 9, 2019

I think most rural dwellers would be happy to have your problem and be able to "fix" it as simply as installing a pressure regulator.

Industrial Toys · Apr 9, 2019

I gotta say, except for pressure balanced shower valves, I have never, ever seen a regulator in a house. And commercial users I know of, have all kinds of trouble with hard water rendering such valves inoperable.