By Cheri Sicard
In the video below, the team from Sharing the Journey discusses an important topic that many newbie RVers (and some experienced ones, too) might be unaware of: the importance of RV water pressure regulators.
Are RV water pressure regulators necessary? As one of the commenters on this video says, you won’t know until it’s too late. They are good, cheap insurance to have.
Our hosts manage a South Carolina campground known to have very high water pressure. Therefore, they ALWAYS encourage their guests to use water pressure regulators when connecting their hoses to the park’s water supply.
As there isn’t a campground store, the managers keep some water pressure regulators on hand to lend to guests in need. They are always amazed at the volume of RVers they encounter who are oblivious to the need for RV water pressure regulators. But what you don’t know can hurt you in the form of potentially extensive and expensive damage to your RV’s plumbing system.
Most RV plumbing systems are designed to handle water pressure between 40 and 60 PSI. In the park our hosts manage, it can sometimes exceed 100 PSI, presenting a graphic example of how essential it is to use a water pressure regulator, unless you are in a place where you confidently KNOW the PSI.
Watch the video to learn details of the potential water damage not having a regulator can cause. He also shows a great example of an adjustable water pressure regulator and how to connect regulators.
Beyond preventing damage, water pressure regulators help maintain a steady water flow in your RV without sudden surges or lapses.
They may not be necessary in every instance, but water pressure regulators are cheap, and the potential consequences of not using them are not.
Bottom line: Always use a water pressure regulator!
Shop for RV water pressure regulators at Amazon.
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RVDT2850
A few tips:
Install the regulator AFTER an inline filter (after purging the filter of course) so that it doesn’t have to digest the particles you’re trying to avoid. Accumulated sand and debris can damage even non-adjustable regulators.
Keep ‘em out of the extreme cold, they can freeze faster than the hose.
On an adjustable regulator, set the pressure without flow. Regulators are supposed to regulate the maximum static pressure, not the flow pressure. Flow pressure will never exceed static pressure yet I’ve seen folks cranking up their regulators to try to boost the pressure of an open hose. We set ours at 45 p.s.i. to match what our pump is set at.
A hint: You can purchase a garden hose connection water pressure gauge for less than $20 (check the reviews for both accuracy and durability). You will know what you have before hooking up to a park spigot. You can also diagnose if your pressure regulator is working properly by putting it after the regulator.
I mostly use my gauge when travelling. However we winter at one park and after multiple tests over a couple weeks at different times of day, determined I could safely remove our regulator. Regulators don’t just restrict pressure, they can also restrict volume. My wife loves the greater water volume.
Campgrounds located near cities will tend to be on municipal water supplies that have higher water pressures. They will usually warn you about high pressure. Of course, “trust, but verify.”
Other than the pressure limit on your online filter, it shouldn’t matter whether the inline filter or the pressure reducer attaches first. The pressure with well water is usually not over 60 PSI. However, until you connect and assuming that you have a pressure gauge, you don’t know what that pressure actually is.
If your water flow or pressure is restricted when connected, be suspicious of a clogged up inline filter. They are relatively inexpensive and carrying an extra one makes sense.
A leak caused by high pressure will make using your RV’s water supply unusable and the RV, therefore, unliveable. We’ve only had that happen to us one time in 40 years of RVing and that occurred on a plastic shut-off valve on a washing machine in an older, luxury MH. Access to it was very difficult and finding a replacement was even more daunting. We found replacements at a local hardware store near a trailer park that had parts for trailers, not at the home stores, chain hardware stores, plumbing supply stores or RV parts suppliers. Whether that valve failed due to high pressure or due to some other defect, I’ll never know.