Water pressure coming into meter too high?

Hi all, Have a situation I'd like to know if anyone has had experience with and if they were able to get any relief correcting. Have a 5 yr. old home on slab. Have had 2 sprinkler system techs that frequently work in the neighborhood tell me the water pressure from the county is extremely high and has caused some problems for some and eventually will cause problems for many others. They both tell me the county water pressure to the meter is around 250 psi. Which is causing the lines from the meter to the regulator to fail because the contractors installed lines that cannot handle that much pressure. Was told that one man spent 12K having to have this line dug up and replaced with a higher capacity line.
My questions are:
Is 250 psi normal for pressure coming to the meter or am I being blown smoke?
If the pressure is that high, can a regulator be put on the county side of the meter to lower it?
Was told the county has been made aware of the problem and refuse to do anything to lower it.
FYI: I have lowered my pressure at the regulator to 60 psi to help try to head off any problems under the slab. Wife and I both hate the lower pressure but see it as possible insurance.
Does anyone out there have any opinions or feedback that might help me head off a problem before it happens if what I am being told is the truth?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

I find it hard to believe the pressure at the meter is 250 psi. If so, the county is just asking for problems.

Trust, but verify!

Thanks havasu. Just getting my info from the sprinkler guys who tell me they have had to replace a number of valves and heads in their systems. Do you know what a common acceptable range in a 1,100 home community in an urban area might range? I did have problems about 2 yrs. ago with my SENSUS I Perl meter going haywire and registering large quantities of usage at all hours of the day and night but that was only for 2 months and mysteriously just quit after reviewing the usage logs myself and requesting the county out to inspect. They found no issue and said they had never had one of these brands of meter malfunction. Very odd but another story for another time. Now my concern is on my incoming water pressure. Feedback?

I saw 85psi static pressure at the house when I moved in, peaking to 150 psi when the water heater heated up - there is a check valve at the meter. Called the PUD and they installed a pressure reducing valve at the meter. Now static pressure is about 40. I'd like it higher, but it's OK for now.

I doubt very much that your water company is providing water at that kind of pressure.
I would simply call the county and ask what there typical water pressure is in you area.
If you had a connection between the meter and the pressure reducing valve to connect a pressure gauge, you could check it yourself.
Ask the fire department what the typical water pressures are. They would know also.
With pressure that high it would not be unusual to have 2 regulators in series.

If they did have pressure even close to what you heard, I would think the regulators would typically be installed upstream of the meters.
If you know your meter model, look up its rated working pressure.

Sensor iPERL Meter...
Maximum Operating Pressure
5/8’’ and 3/4’’ size: 200 psi (13.8 bar)
1’’ size: 175 psi (12.1 bar)

Yeah your getting smoke. No water pump for utility use goes that high. A tower would have to be 300’ high for that. But you do need to call water department. They can come check your meter pressure. $12,000 water line would be about 4300’ long with 1” pipe. Don’t pay that contractor. Get other estimate for sprinkler system.

Hey James ...and that 300' high tower would have to be on top of a 300' hill.

Yeah your right I was guessing at it.

If I remember correctly, the AWWA and EPA standard is 100-psi at the point of connection to a building. Most Districts try to stay between 30 to 80-psi.

There aren’t standards for max psi in the distribution system. But, the cost of building a system to work above 100-psi is normally far greater than adding pressure reducing valves,or intermediate reservoirs with elevation control valves to keep pressure in the 30 to 80-psi range.

Had the sprinkler install/repairman out this week. Had to once again replace one of the zone control valve/ regulator or whatever it is called in the box in ground near water meter. I misquoted the pressure in my initial post. He says it is around 220 coming into meter. He says that the high pressure is what is causing the components to fail for sprinkler system. He also says that several neighbors have had to replace the same components and a couple have had to replace the water line from meter up to the inside home pressure regulator because of the high pressure. Once he replaced the sprinkler component he turned on to check. The water is coming out of heads with such force that it would water my neighbors yards and the street. Therefore heads have to be adjusted down to where water comes out in mists. He says a pressure regulator between the water meter and the sprinkler control box is the only way to correct this and he has corrected others problems in this subdivision by adding one. I am going to call my water department first and talk to them about this and get their take on the situation. My sprinkler guy seems to be just a good ole boy and honest and has been in the business for over 20 years. Not sure who to believe at this point. Just want to get some honest answers and try to get a permanent fix on the problems. Question: Can I read the pressure coming into the meter or will I have to get the water department out to check it? My thanks to all who have responded with advice and opinions and I greatly appreciate the feedback and opinions on this situation. I just want to head this off before I have to replace the water line to the inside regulator and stop the repeated sprinkler system problems, failures and to get the sprinkler heads operating properly.

Think of the liability the city or county would incur with such high water pressures. Most couplings are not able to handle that pressure and you would have blow outs all over the city. I still think some smoke blowing is occurring. Have the water department verify this information.

havasu said:

Think of the liability the city or county would incur with such high water pressures. Most couplings are not able to handle that pressure and you would have blow outs all over the city. I still think some smoke blowing is occurring. Have the water department verify this information.

Click to expand...

That's my first call Monday morning. Thanks

I had a meeting with our local water board this morning. Our city's max pressure is 110 psi. I asked if it was possible to increase the water pressure to the amount you wrote, and they said every pipe in the city would explode under that pressure. They said if the pump house was next to your house, higher numbers would be possible, but only on a long leg run.

Sounds to me like you need a new pressure regulator installed.

So my understanding is ...
The pressure at the meter is at about 220 psi based on sprinkler people.
The pressure for the house has been reduced to 60 psi.
The sprinkler system is a take-off between the meter and the PRV set at 60 psi.
OP(homeowner) will be asking water department to verify the excessive pressure at the meter and about having a PRV installed upstream of the meter.

Where is the meter located and where is the take-off for the sprinkler system located?

nopro said:

Hi all, Have a situation I'd like to know if anyone has had experience with and if they were able to get any relief correcting. Have a 5 yr. old home on slab. Have had 2 sprinkler system techs that frequently work in the neighborhood tell me the water pressure from the county is extremely high and has caused some problems for some and eventually will cause problems for many others. They both tell me the county water pressure to the meter is around 250 psi. Which is causing the lines from the meter to the regulator to fail because the contractors installed lines that cannot handle that much pressure. Was told that one man spent 12K having to have this line dug up and replaced with a higher capacity line.
My questions are:
Is 250 psi normal for pressure coming to the meter or am I being blown smoke?
If the pressure is that high, can a regulator be put on the county side of the meter to lower it?
Was told the county has been made aware of the problem and refuse to do anything to lower it.
FYI: I have lowered my pressure at the regulator to 60 psi to help try to head off any problems under the slab. Wife and I both hate the lower pressure but see it as possible insurance.
Does anyone out there have any opinions or feedback that might help me head off a problem before it happens if what I am being told is the truth?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Click to expand...

at 250 psi I say there blowing smoke,if I were you I would try to call the city or county to have someone check it out,next I would pay a plumber install a hose bib under neath the prv so you can test the pressure with a homedepo pressure guage then I would file a claim against those two guys who tookm youre neighbors money

Have gotten a lot of good advice and opinions from you guys and I sincerely appreciate it. I know some of you are master plumbers and have been doing this for 20, 30 or 4o years or more and you know the business. Was finally able to get my water department tech out yesterday and I explained my issues with sprinkler systems components being blown out repeatedly and the pressure out of the heads too high and concern for my lines up to the PRV in my garage next to the water heater. The guy was nice and knowledgeable and has been with the water dept. since 2007 when he lost his plumbing job of many years when the economy went sideways. Told him of the claims of 2 sprinkler people of excessively high water pressure. He then said that may be true. I live at the end of a cul de sac in the rear of an 1.00 home community. He took a look around and said he could measure the pressure at a hydrant that was about 50 feet away and it would be close to the pressure coming in to my home. He took out a huge rachet and socket and a huge gauge attached to a cap that fits over one of the smaller hydrant openings. He removed a cap and proceeded to bleed off a little water until clear. Said he was doing this to prevent any sediment from contaminating his gauge. He then screwed gauge on and opened hydrant all the way. I watched and the gauge went up to 203. Didn't have my phone but wish I had so I could have taken a photo because I know some of you would not believe this. He also said that at the front of our large subdivision. 1.7 miles to the front. The readings would be even higher and also said on the north end of our county the readings might be a third of this. At my home the configuration is the meter is located nearest the street. Behind it about a foot is a 6 inch round box with the shutoff. Behind that about 18 inches is the sprinkler system main box with all the zone valves, connections, wires and the water cutoff for the sprinkler system. He advised but informed me he wasn't supposed to give advice, that he would have the pressure regulator removed from the garage and place another in an in ground box between the street shutoff and the sprinkler system and house to lower the pressure and stop the excessive pressure stress not only off the sprinkler system but off the entire system from the meter forward. Said this should eliminate the stress and excess pressure on the system and correct the excessive sprinkler head pressure and misting sprinkler heads caused by excessive pressure as well as the valve failures in the in the sprinkler system ground control box. He also told me of a few homes in front of the subdivision that had to had their lawn dug up and their garage floors jackhammered to replace the damage line from the meter to the PRV. And he said that cost could very easily be in the many thousands and messy. I just want to be proactive and head this off at the pass before a massive pipe failure happens to me as well as stop the sprinkler system failures and misting heads. This is all I know and have been told. What say you?

Sounds about right. Just a bit surprised that they are not concerned about their meters. I'm guessing they don't want to have to pay for installing a bunch of PRV's. As I recall, 200 psi was the maximum recommended operating pressure for those meters.
In the meantime, don't cause any major water hammer by quickly closing 1/4 turn valves. That would increase the pressure enormously and could easily result in damage to the system somewhere.

Too bad you didn't think of asking him what they do on the front of our large subdivision, where the pressure is even higher. As far as protecting their water meters.

EDIT: BTW...Not unusual to have the water service pressure fluctuate at different times of day. So the 220 psi test may have been correct at the time. Area pressure would drop when demand is high.

Thanks diehard. This guy spent a good 30 to 40 minutes here and explained a lot. Even showed he one of the Sensus iPerl meters on his truck and explained it and how much they love this meter. He did tell me to the best of his knowledge they have not had any failures and when I asked about the 2 months I had crazy bizarre readings at all hours of the day and night said that could just been an anomoly or could have been caused by the high pressure. Thankfully that problem just disappeared but I know where to start now should that problem reappear. As for slowly closing valves, yes I have been dong that all along as well as opening them vey slowly. For the record, I have 2 of those water hammer arrestors ( I think that's their proper trade name). One is on the hot and one is on the cold at the washer connections in my laundry room. Thanks again and all opinions and advice is much appreciated and informative.
Edit: This a 1,106 home subdivision with my home location very near the rear.