Crazy County Water Pressure

[3Ts]

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.

When I lived in San Jose, California, we had one on the waterline as it came into the house.

 

[tjkubota93]

Mine reached 80 and I called the water dept. Same answer you got. Home owner responsible to install regulator.

They did check the status of a few valves to see if they could help any that way.

They also checked it at my house with a high quality gauge, I told them that i didnt trust my gauge from HD. I all of a sudden started having water hammer is why I investigated.

 

[drssg]

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.

Maybe it varies by area? When we built our house, I *think* it was code that the first two plumbing devices were a pressure regulator and a back flow preventer.

 

[jaxs]

From some of the comments,it's obovious some people have never lived where pressure in the shower drop's to a mere trickle during morning rush. Well funded city systems where there's 3 dozen houses in a mile stretch of main line,have loops in line,booster pumps and prv as needed to maintain pressure during demand fluctuations. If rural water districts did that where there might be 1 house per mile,consumer cost would be prohibitive. Choose your poison but don't chose mine. $150 and 2 hours of my time is well worth setting my pressure to what I want instead of what my neighbor want's.

 

[turnkey4099]

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?

Our town built a new reservoir up on the side of the canyon. Startedblowing fixtures all over town down below. Up to the residents to install pressure reducers.

 

[turnkey4099]

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.

It should be possible to reset the pressure on a home well system. Not very familiar with a jet pump but a submersible it is easy to set for almost any pressure (within reason) that you want.

 

[turnkey4099]

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.

They are common all over the country. I had to install one in my mother's house when she switched to city water.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

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?

Your pressure reducer valve will drop it to 40 psi or so for home use. Since a PRV is also a back-check, you need an expansion tank to accommodate the water heater expansion. 150 PSI is typical mains pressure almost everywhere. It's handy if you have a fire. Hopefully you have a hydrant on the main for fire fighting water. 40 PSI won't cut it if there is a fire.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Weird! Like I said, I have never seen one and I have been in a lot of peoples basements. Plus, I am most curious as to what is about. I could never dismiss something I didn't recognize without asking. Also, I have never seen one in the hardware stores either.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Maybe it varies by area? When we built our house, I *think* it was code that the first two plumbing devices were a pressure regulator and a back flow preventer.

It varies. Sometimes the meter is also a back check. If you have a sprinkler system or fire hydrant, a back check is required but not a pressure reducer. The amount of water that will come through the meter depends on the meter size. A 1" meter will provide a lot more flow than a 3/4" meter. For new construction, a 3/4" meter is pretty standard. Most fixtures and water heaters are rated for 125 PSI, and the most common pressure reducer is set to 50 PSI, so you have a good safety margin. The popoff valve on your water heater is normally set to 100 PSI. 150 PSI is well within normal mains pressure.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Weird! Like I said, I have never seen one and I have been in a lot of peoples basements. Plus, I am most curious as to what is about. I could never dismiss something I didn't recognize without asking. Also, I have never seen one in the hardware stores either.

The pressure reducer is normally in the meter vault out by the street. I have never seen one inside a house. It's not a hardware store item. Try a plumbing supply house.

 

[Jim Nelson]

We live in a small, unincorporated, town in Southern Ca. and our water is supplied by a municipal water district. Our pressure at the house is an average around 140 psi and there is a pressure regulator at the point where the water line enters the house.It is set at 50 psi. Our house has an inside sprinkler system and a year or so ago the pressure relief valve for that system started dripping so I called a fire sprinkler guy because, though most plumbing doesn't worry me, this did. The fellow that came out just adjusted the valve and said this isn't uncommon in our area.I asked him about the seemingly high pressure and he said that he has seen it as high as 300psi in our water district and that is why it is so important to have a pressure regulator and check it regularly.
You can bet that I keep a close eye on ours and have had to replace it once when it started dripping.The pressure then on the house side was 125psi.
Before moving her we had a well and were lucky to get 40 psi at the house so this place was a learning experience.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Maybe kind of like garbage disposals. I had to live in and visit the US to know they even existed.

 

[Beltzington]

We live in a small, unincorporated, town in Southern Ca. and our water is supplied by a municipal water district. Our pressure at the house is an average around 140 psi and there is a pressure regulator at the point where the water line enters the house.It is set at 50 psi. Our house has an inside sprinkler system and a year or so ago the pressure relief valve for that system started dripping so I called a fire sprinkler guy because, though most plumbing doesn't worry me, this did. The fellow that came out just adjusted the valve and said this isn't uncommon in our area.I asked him about the seemingly high pressure and he said that he has seen it as high as 300psi in our water district and that is why it is so important to have a pressure regulator and check it regularly.
You can bet that I keep a close eye on ours and have had to replace it once when it started dripping.The pressure then on the house side was 125psi.
Before moving her we had a well and were lucky to get 40 psi at the house so this place was a learning experience.

Good info, I hadn't really considered input pressure would effect output pressure but I don't fully understand how a PRV works. As soon as I get my pressure gauge back I will test my house pressure to see if it is still 70psi, if not I will add it to my scheduled checks like looking at HVAC filters.

Funny folks are thinking 150psi is high when 300psi is "normal" in some areas. Never know unless you ask and are willing to look outside your conceptions.

 

[Gary Fowler]

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.

The way we learned it from my SCUBA diving days we learned that we increased 1 atmosphere (14.7 PSI) per ever 33 feet of depth so that calculates to .445 PSI per foot. Both of our answers seem to be correct and a long way from 2.3 per foot.

 

[aczlan]

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.

They are common around here and required if you don't want to have constantly leaking toilets.
It freezes here, so they are generally inside the house where they stay warm.

Aaron Z

 

[Industrial Toys]

Just to add more worms escaping to the can opened. IF I had that situation (being in the alarm business) I would be monitoring my water pressure, and I have never heard of such a thing in thirty years, in the business. After all, water can do as much damage as a fire. I shut my water pump off, if leaving the property!

 

[Deere Dude]

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

My bad. 1# every 2.31 feet.
Tells you what kind of plumbing training I had lol.

Wikileaks says;
The 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. A PSI to Feet Scale illustrates a scale for converting units of pressure and head.

 

[Industrial Toys]

No trouble. Unlike some, I don't get caught up on the numbers. The basic idea is what counts. Most people don't know the height of their municipal water tower and if they did, would they know how full it is?

 

[PILOON]

In my area, which is very hilly, all new constructions must install a pressure regulator since depending on your elevation you could get wild pressures like even 100 PSI.
Adding insult to injury, all commercial edifices must also install a meter just in case you cook food and wash dishes or , god forbid, wash cars commercially.
To be absolutely sure that you conform the inspector needs to inspect the installation.
LOL, then the water line freezes so the city installs a bypass line and taxes U for that excessive consumption.