Home Inspector Reports It Needs a Water Pressure Regulator?

Hi,

I'm in the process of buying a house and today met with the Home Inspector.
About the only couple of things he said needed to be done, one he said it needed a water pressure regulator. He said it could be fitted on the pipes coming into the house in the crawl space.

Now I have done a bit of searching on this forum and am reading that is this also known as a PRV? pressure regulator valve? or is this something different. If it is then I keep reading that this would also need an expansion tank.....

so basically my main questions are:

Is this gonna be expensive? Could I do it myself? how much do ya think a plumber would charge?

Reason I'm asking this is so I can either ask the seller to fix it before we do the closing or we might offer to do it/pay for it ourselves if the seller leaves us the fridge!

Thanks, Justin

You've guessed it, a PRV is a pressure regulating valve. They are not expensive items, available at most any place that sells plumbing supplies. They are easy to install...if you can sweat copper joints. There is one thing that should be added to this however. A PRV contains a backflow prevention devise which in turn creates what is called a "closed system". What this means is, when the water heater heats the water, this water expands and has no place to go. The pressure inside the water heater then rises often causing the TP valve on the tank to trip and leak. The cure for this is to install a small expansion tank between the PRV and the water heater. This tank is air charged to the same pressure that you set the PRV and gives the heated water someplace to go. This is also not expensive and is easy to install. While you are at it, an inexpensive pressure gauge can be installed in the line to make checking the water pressure easier.

Thank you! Nice info, I guess I can search for correct pressures on here. I read in one post that about 65 psi is desirable.

You can buy a water pressure tester for about $10 and see what you have to start with. The pressure in my area is 125 psi and no one has a reducing valve. I just moved in, so I cannot say how washer hoses hold up to this.

40 to 80 is the "normal" range for household pressure, 60 being "about right". Anything above 80 and your hoses are at risk, the toilet fill valve can act up, and in general is not a good idea.

Go to this link http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/start.shtml and search by Stock Number (one at a time) for the following:
2P081 3A557 6LM11

These are pressure reducing valves by Watts. You can probably install them yourself.

There are also some "super capacity" valves, Stock Numbers 6KJ92 and 6KJ93. They don't give capacity numbers on either of the valves.

I would probably go with the 3A557 which is a Watts 25AUB-1 in 1" size. It can be set at pressures up to 75 psi and accepts inlet pressure to 300 psi. Catalog price is $69.85 and I saw it for $61.98 at http://www.hatcreekoutfit.com/xcart/customer/product.php?productid=869

You might get an estimate for installation of such a valve and get the seller to take that off the sale price. I expect that your local plumber will do it for $150 to $200.

prv

That is a recommendation by the inspector, not a requirement, so whether it gets installed or not depends on who is most anxious to make the sale. Check the actual incoming pressure to see if it is over 90 psi. If not, you can live without the PRV, but if you install one, then you also need the expansion tank.

I lived for years with 70 - 75 pounds presser and really liked it.
Lots of pluses and nothing negative.
Never had any problem related to high pressure.

So he said you need a prv valve and didn't tell you what pressure you have?

Sounds like the inspector I had when I sold my house of 35 years.
They have to find some little thing to justify being there. And he doesn't know what pressure you have coming inside the house?

Never needed an expansion tank and never had any problems with relief valves. Replaced the relief on the boiler one time and ones on the w h when they were replaced .

hehe, this is getting confusing now lol - I just spoke again to the inspector and he said the incoming pressure was 'fine' and that the PRV was only to prevent surges from the city......I asked him about the PRV also needing an expansion tank and he said that because it was an older house there was no 'back-flow prevention device' and that it wouldn't need one? Seems to me like we might aswell just leave it be, as it looks like it's all worked fine for 53 years since the house was built....thanks for all the helpful replies. I think what I'll do is get a pressure guage and check it out for myself when we move in.....

You may not need a PRV if the pressure isn't excessive, but the inspector is incorrect about the need for an expansion tank with a PRV. A PRV valve acts as a backflow preventer. A backflow preventer can also be a separate device and is included in newer meters as I understand it, so a new home with high water pressure could actually have two backflow preventers. I don't know if pressure surges are a problem where you are, perhaps the city could answer that. They can also tell you what pressure your main carries. My original advice assumed that you had high pressure and really did need the PRV.

If your water pressure is within the normal recommended range, I would not bother with the prv unless you confirm that your area is subject to wild water pressure variation which is probably not the case. You can call your water provider and see what they have to say.

thanks again! no action needed at this stage by the sounds of things....