Pressure vaccum breaker

[Lebeagle1]

It seems that every pressure vaccum breaker in our neighborhood leaks excessively. By excessively, I mean that the ground is always muddy in the area below the PVB. All these systems were installed by the same contractor within the last two years. I checked the canopy on mine and it appeared considerably loose. I hand tightened it and it seemed to stop the leaking. Was this the right or wrong thing to do? I am not familiar with how these are suppose to be set. Thanks for any help!

[SteveW]

I don't know if this is relevant to your situation or not, but here goes...

My neighbor's PVB blew up one Saturday morning while he was away. Fortunately a jogger running past the house noticed the new fountain in the front yard and alerted me. I replaced every plastic part in the thing. The neighbor says this has happened at least twice before.

I poked around a bit and found he has a pressure reducing valve but no expansion tank - his house pressure would exceed 100 psi when his water heater kicked in (much like my situation before I added an expansion tank).

According to Watts' web site (as I recall), one of the causes of premature failure of PVBs is excessive pressure from thermal expansion.

SO...do you have a pressure-reducing valve but no expansion tank?

[markts30]

To further steve's logic...
Has anyone in the neighborhood check what the water pressure is??? Could be that the city is over-pressurizing the mains to compensate for new building in the area...
As well, some irrigation systems are cut into the house line prior to pressure reducing valves...

[hj]

If by canopy you mean the thin metal cover, that is to keep debris out of the unit. It has nothing to do with the operation, or leaking, of the valve. Maybe he used inferior valves if they are all leaking. A good one properly installed does not leak even at 150 psi, their working pressure, not their test pressure.

[Wet_Boots]

What's the make and model of the affected PVBs? Some are better-built than others.