in line water regulator

before I woke up and bought a regulator, I came out of the TT to find my hose looked like it swallowed a rabbit

before I woke up and bought a regulator, I came out of the TT to find my hose looked like it swallowed a rabbit

Many RV manufactures use a combination City Water inlet/Pressure regulator made by Sur-Flo (I think it is, hold on I'll check, one on the shelf in front of me)

SHURflo (mispelled it) A Watts subsidary.

I DO NOT recommend these.. Oh the regulator is ok, I give it a 9 and I have the inline version of it..

The proper place for the regulator is on the park water spigot,,, THEN the hose.. Here is why

Just outside my window (Behind me) is the park water faucet.. pressure there has been measured at over 110 PSI,, High enough to blow the ends off my fresh water hose.. Hooked to it is a ZURIN 3/4 inch adjustable regulator,, THEN the hose,, 50 PSI.. Zurin is brand new.

WATTS makes one that is much like the Zurin,, I have one of those too but it's old and in need of a rebuld.. Both of these if I turn on the outside shower while watching the gauge,,, The pressure needle (50 psi side) well on the Zurin it remained frozen in place, does not move,, Same with the Watts when new but due to the ravages of age. As i said it needs a rebuld..

By the way I give these a resounding 10 on a scale of 10. FULL FLOW at 50 PSI.

The SHURflow needs a kit too It goes way down now days.

Bob Landry wrote:
it makes no sense to me to protect the trailer and not the water hose supplying water to it.

Simple solution - just use a high pressure RV hose like his Valterra one. Around $15 for 25'.

I use a Watts regulator at the spigot. it makes no sense to me to protect the trailer and not the water hose supplying water to it.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

It looks like I will do what most others are practicing.....regulator at cg faucet.

Had problems with 2 campgrounds who didn't say anything of their high pressure issues. Very frustrating.

Thanks again!

If you want to put something inside, forget about an inline regulator. They don't really perform that well and are more of a flow restrictor. They have a small hole inside of around 1/16" dia. or less. They have a low flow rate of about 1 gpm. Since they work simply by restricting flow through a hole, the pressure will end up equalizing on both sides of the "regulator" and you can get high pressure inside your unit that can cause damage. The inline regulators inline regulators are more prone to plugging up from sediment and debris. Some info. on how inline regulators work: inline regulator performance

If you are going to put one inside, I would use a "proper" regulator like the Watts 263A or H560 that have a diaphragm inside acting against a spring. The 263A is good for 4 - 4.5 gpm and the H560 is good for 2 - 2.5 gpm. You should have a gauge with one of these so that you can see what the regulated pressure is.

The ease of installing one inside depends on where the city water inlet is and the availability of space to mount it. I installed a Watts 263A inside our TT and the city water inlet is under the kitchen sink which made connecting to the piping easy and there was plenty of space to mount the regulator at the rear of the lower cabinet. I also installed water filters too.

If you are going to use a regulator mounted inside, that means that your hose (to the cg faucet) is unprotected against high cg pressure. To handle that, you can get a high pressure rating hose like Valterra makes. It's available in 1/2" and 5/8" and the 5/8" is good for 200 psi. I would also upgrade the piping type inside between the city water inlet and regulator to handle higher pressure. Often there is braided hose with a hose fitting which may not be able to handle high pressure. I actually went a step further and installed brass pipe from our inlet to the regulator.

For info. and purchase, this is a good vendor: RV Water Filter Store

Photo 1 is the regulator setup below our sink. I installed a telltale gauge ahead of the regulator to see how high the pressure reached over the camping season. So far it's been up to 80 psi, but we haven't done much camping yet. Photo 2 shows where I mounted the gauge for the regulated pressure - at the HWT where I can easily view it by opening the door.

poncho62 wrote:
Yep...I also put the regulator on the spigot on the post where the tap is....Also less chance of someone walking by, hitting it and snapping off the inlet of the trailer

X-2 and also install a water filter at the water inlet of the trailer for better tasting water. No hose taste or other un-welcomed debris.

Makes no sense to install it INSIDE the trailer. But you do need one. I agree with the others: put it on the city water spigot, then put your hose on the regulator.

I've had experiences with 3 places that had really high water pressure. The first one told us as we signed in that a regulator would be needed in his campground because the city insisted on supplying him with water at 150 psi, which would blow all your plumbing without it, and he told us to put it on the spigot. Second one said nothing, I put the regulator on the side of the trailer, and about 20 minutes later saw that my hose had ruptured. Third one also said nothing, and before hooking the TT up, I went to hose down the side due to having gotten splashed with mud, and with no nozzle on the hose it shot water a good 40 feet. needless to say, regulator went on the spigot and I saved a hose.

Yep...I also put the regulator on the spigot on the post where the tap is....Also less chance of someone walking by, hitting it and snapping off the inlet of the trailer