PRV Replacement

[Furry Orca]

Yey! The project is complete and water pressure is regulated and back to normal. The plumber, nice guy by the way, ended up having to sweat and solder afterall. In fact, Shark Bites would not have worked. He verified that there was only a 1/4 inch or so of play in the pipes for maneuverability. You need an inch for Shark Bites. He ended up having to cut the pipe on the side of the PRV closest to the front of the water heater and the side furthest from the back wall. So, he cut the pipe on the side to which the water flow arrow was pointing. He refitted a new coupling with some additional pipe cutting for fitment purposes and made the new unit double union for ease of replacement when this new unit fails. What took him a while was the pesky o-rings. He must have had a pretty tight fit because he kept on crimping them. I think he went through two or three before he relented and used washers instead.

Here are some pics of the new double union PRV installed and functioning as hoped and designed.




Here's a closer look at the part of the piping that was reconfigured to accommodate the double union considering severely limited play in the piping.


As I mentioned, it is now working as hoped and designed. Pressures are now regulated and normalized. Here is the reading from the front hose bibb. I adjusted the screw on the PRV to a psi of 53. When another tap is drawing, there is a consistent 5 psi drop which is expected and reasonable.



Here's the backyard hose bibb reading. It's consistent with the front yard hose bibb.



Mission accomplished. Next time I won't need to use a plumber to replace this fixture and in the meantime maybe I will practice sweating and soldering just for the hell of it in preparation for replacing the water heater which is also 18-years-old.

 

[Furry Orca]

Fyi, one final note. The plumber spent approximately an hour and a half completing this project. Sans the pesky o-ring obstacle, he would have finished in under an hour. His fee was $300 which, as I mentioned in other comments, is reasonable considering I received quotes for $450 and $400 from other plumbers. Also, his quote to me over the phone was not open-ended. He received and reviewed the pics and specifically told me what he would do for that fee. I say this because some of the other plumbers said the quote could range in price due to the difficulty experienced even after reviewing the pics.

One last thing. I assumed my washing machine was leaking at the intake valves because of this high water pressure issue. I had replaced the old valves and the water was still leaking so I thought for sure it was the high water pressure. As it turns out, it wasn't, or isn't, because of the high water pressure afterall. The problem still persists with the washing machine despite the water pressure now being regulated properly. It's a never-ending cascade of issues, isn't it? But hey, that's life.

 

[SGkent]

it is an old thread, I read thru it looking for a solution to my issue, That said, I am surprised no one suggested just replacing the parts inside. Most manufacturers have kits for a lot less than a whole new PRV. Most PRV's I have known last 5 - 8 years before the parts get fatigued enough to interfere with proper operation.