water pressure regulators

Veebyes wrote:
When traveling life is much simpler the fewer the connections that need to be made.

LIke you, I almost always use water from my tank. The exception is when I have one of my teenage granddaughters camping with me. THEN, I hook up to shore water with my Watts 263 and open the gray water drain into the dump station. I am not going to try to teach a teenage girl about water rationing.

I have one of each. The pressure reducer, found at a campsite, & a bought adjustable.

Don't use either one. I am one of those, apparently rare, campers who use water from their tanks exclusively.

When traveling life is much simpler the fewer the connections that need to be made.

rk911 wrote:
Watts

YEP, bought mine from them. Bought their white water hoses, will never need to buy another.

Lynnmor wrote:

bob213 wrote:
I needed a new gauge for my Watts and was shocked at the price of them today. Watts is the best but be prepared to pay $$$! I think I might be tempted to try the Valterra adjustable for under $60 on Amazon.

You can buy a gauge at any hardware store.

That's exactly what I did but you may be surprised at the lack of availability at any hardware store. Back mounted are harder to find but can be had online. It was in my search for the gauge that I saw the prices for a new one. A cheap gauge replacement was the answer for me and a lesson to store my regulator right side up so the oil doesn't drain out of it.

bob213 wrote:
I needed a new gauge for my Watts and was shocked at the price of them today. Watts is the best but be prepared to pay $$$! I think I might be tempted to try the Valterra adjustable for under $60 on Amazon.

You can buy a gauge at any hardware store.

Over 70,000 miles of travel using those “junk” fixed regulators and never had a problem. Maybe I’m just lucky.

Dave

Rob, thanks for the post. That set up looks a lot cleaner/slick than the stuff I got cobbeled together on my watts. :C

I have worn out 2 watts 263A units over the past 10 years of full time use. The brass at the point where the unit actually limits the pressure just eroded over time. You couldn't see it, but it quit limiting pressure. A rebuild kit didn't solve the problem since the main unit was worn not the rebuild kit parts. Two in 10 years? I can live with that and bought another one. Problem solved.

I have tried several over the years and agree the small inline ones commonly sold to RVers are junk. A step up is the $60 Valterra mentioned above, but I’ve had two of them and found them ridiculously fragile. I now have a Watts that is adjustable and has no gauge but is built like a tank. I got it at the orange home improvement store where it was sold for home use.

Watts and Zurin both make fine regulators.. nearly identical. They also make ****. as does a number of other companies.

HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERNCE
You know those 3/4" diamater cylinder jobs they sell in RV stores. Male hose fittinn on one end, Female on the other? JUNK
Oh they will limit the pressure but they also restrict the flow.

SUR-FLO (A Watts corp if I'm not mistaken) makes a decent one. In fact if your RV has one built in.. Guess who's Now the construction suggests it can be repuilt when it ages.

Watts and Zurin both make nearly identical devices designed to be used In line win a house or apartment. Thest units have a bell shaped upper housing. the bell's "Mounting bolt" is the pressure adjustment bolt.

They are made of Brass and are fully rebuildable. The Bell is about 3" in diamater at the base.

Test results
Junk models (Also a wore out Watts) Static 50 psi. flowing 10 psi

Brand new Zurin.. Static 50 psi.. FULL FLOW 50 psi

Park pressure varied from 60 PSI to 120 druing those tests.