How To LOWER Your Water Pressure (COMPLETE GUIDE) | GOT2LEARN

what's up guys and welcome back to another video today i'm gonna be showing you why it might be a good idea for you to install a pressure regulating valve how to check your pressure how to choose the correct prv how to install it how to adjust it and also some troubleshooting tips that might serve you if you already have one installed so without further ado let's jump right into it so a pressure regulating valve why would you need one in your home some municipalities have higher pressure than others and it could be a good thing just like it could be a bad one most fixtures in your home such as your toilet fill valve appliances and faucet cartridges have a max rating of around 80 psi anything above that could potentially damage them and cause a flood in your home which is something you want to prevent at all cost high pressure also makes your pipes more prone to banging in the walls and makes them noisier as well now if you're wondering these regulators are to drop high pressure only they will not increase your initial pressure by any means i'll be covering how to increase your water pressure in a future video if you're looking to install a prv like this you'll most likely need to install a thermal expansion tank as well most prvs act as a one-way valve when installed and prevent any overpressure from going back into the city line in other words you now have a closed-loop system this excess pressure needs to go somewhere and the expansion tank solves this issue and they're often installed near the hot water tank as most of the thermal expansion happens there due to the water heating up some models like the e3 and eb25 from cash acme and 25 aub from watts are designed to let water back into the city and do not require an expansion tank and what's nice about the eb25 is you don't need any tools to adjust the pressure which is a really nice feature so just make sure you consult a professional before choosing your prv so how exactly do you get a pressure reading on your system well it's actually quite simple big box stores sell this 15 gadget right here called a pressure test gauge and it basically attaches to an indoor or outdoor faucet to give you a reading and it's by far the easiest way of doing it there are some ways of calculating the pressure without these but i won't be covering them in this video as it's just a lot simpler to get a gauge now let's say you got a reading of 100 psi you want to make sure you're getting a prv that has the range that you're looking for which is normally between something like 50 to 70 pounds of pressure and as you could see the one i chose has a working pressure range of 15 to 75 psi which is perfect for most needs just ask at the counter where you're buying it and they'll give you the right prv you're looking for there are some prvs that are for heating system that can only do between 15 to 30 psi so be careful which one you get alright so now you got your pressure reading and you have the correct prv and expansion tank let's go ahead and install it together so chances are if you're installing one of these you'll be retrofitting it in a wall with other components and you might be limited in space one thing you do want to make sure of is that you're installing it after the main shutoff valve and water meter if you have one and before the first branch if you have an irrigation system that's properly working you might want to install it after that branch so it doesn't affect its performance now as you could see i have my main shutoff valve here i don't have a water meter but my first branch is too close to the valve so we'll need to make some modifications here for this to work the first thing you want to do is close the water and empty the system if you choose to use shark bites to do this project you don't really need to worry about having leftover water in this system but if you'll be soldering like i will all the water needs to be emptied out prior to so let's cut this part out for now when i'm cutting copper piping i like using my auto cut cutter as it doesn't snag on anything and i don't have to tighten it like other cutters with that out of the way let's concentrate on building this line here and then we'll assemble our branch line so the order is going to be the shutoff valve the prv a drain and finally the t fitting for our branch to close the loop i always like adding these here so i could empty the system out through a hose when doing renovations or repairs and it's just a lot easier the reason why i put it here is so that i could use it to also read the pressure after the prv and not have to disconnect my washing machine hose or go outside to get a reading but normally you'd install a drain here to be able to empty out 100 of the water now i won't teach you how to solder in this video but if you want to learn how to just click this card here and it'll link you to my how to solder video that helped millions of people just as a quick tip here if ever this happens to you that there's water left in this section of the pipe just grab a spray bottle head and use it to get the water out it's super quick and easy with this method once this line is assembled go ahead and assemble your branch and you could start soldering a lot of people will also install two pressure gauges to be able to get a pressure differential but it's not mandatory just as a precaution you want to remove the prv body not to burn out the o-rings that seal it just to make sure [Music] hmm [Music] good now you can install the prv body these do have an orientation to them and they must be installed correctly or they won't work just look on the body and you'll see some arrows pointing in the direction it needs to go make sure your o-rings and gaskets are in place and tighten both nuts for the expansion tank find a spot near your hot water tank if you can install a t-fitting with the correct adapter and screw it on most of these tanks connections are made out of stainless steel so you'll need to have a brass fitting in between to prevent galvanic corrosion from occurring it's also highly recommended to install these upside down to prevent the water from becoming stagnant and developing bacteria inside so if you can do it that way as for sizing these come in a variety of sizes and shapes depending on which manufacturer you choose you'll have a chart that'll depict which tank is good for your situation and it usually goes by which size hot water tank you have and how much pressure the system will get and as a last note these tanks come pre-charged this one in particular is charged at 40 psi and it has to match the inlet pressure so if you're looking to set yours at 50 psi like me you'll need to add 10 psi to your tank and it could be done through this fill valve right here now to adjust these it's pretty straightforward the screw on top here is your adjustment screw that essentially compresses a spring to regulate the amount of pressure that's desired and there's a nut to lock it in place once you got it so let's say we want a balanced 50 psi in our system this particular prv is pre-adjusted at 45 psi so we need to tighten the adjustment screw to increase the pressure up five psi so just unlock the nut give it a turn or two and recheck the pressure on the gauge up until it reaches 50 and you'd lock the nut back in place now what if you already have one of these installed and it's not doing the job here are some tips i gathered that might point to the problem the most common problem is it not reducing the pressure and it could be due to a few things number one would be that the inline filter is clogged this of course is if you have a filtered model like the e3 from cash acme you just unscrew right here and the filter would come out the second reason would be that the gaskets or gasket seats are worn these gaskets are what make for a good seal if they're worn out or cracked they'll let the city pressure through and not allow it to do its job when this happens a good telltale sign is that the prv will make a screeching sound which means it needs servicing they sell rebuild kits for these making for a much cheaper alternative than replacing the whole thing which is always good to know and lastly if you have a faulty expansion tank you'll for sure have a lot of pressure fluctuations throughout the house and it's a good indicator that something's wrong within the system so those are a few tips to go by if you're having problems with your water pressure if you guys like this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up share it and subscribe for more informative videos like this one and until the next one thanks for watching you

Channel: Got2Learn

Views: 1,385,038

Keywords: plumbing trick, plumbing hacks, plumbing, plumbing videos, plumbing tools, plumbing basics, plumbing repair, plumbing diy, plumbing how to, plumbing video, how to do plumbing, how to repair plumbing, how to fix plumbing, rough in plumbing, how to solder, soldering copper pipe, how to solder copper pipe, how to sweat copper pipe, how to sweat copper fittings, got2learn, how to install prv, pressure regulating valve, too much water pressure

Id: GbHFWj1ul8o

Length: 10min 22sec (622 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 15 2020