Water pressure regulator -- Fail?

[mleekamp]

We just got back from a great trip to Cheyenne Mtn State Park. But here's the thing....

At all our stops we had water hook up. I used a water regulator with a gauge...hoping to get a read on the pressure. It read from 70 to 80 psi depending on the campground we were at. Laugh if you wish, but "just in case" I added my non-gauged regulator before the gauged regulator...both supposed to regulate to 45-50 psi. Again, gauge reads 7-80 psi. So, I ended up filling the tank and using the pump.

Question is, why would something set to regulate to 45-50 psi still show high pressure? Even with water running, it was too high. I worried about it to the point I did not just hook it up but filled the tank.

[D_E_Bishop]

I can't really in this era of litigious consumers that any company would label and sell a flow restrictor as a pressure regulator. I think that if that were true, we would be reading case after case of water line failures in these forums. Marshall Brass makes a variety of regulators that are well under the $70 price, are all of these just flow reducers?

I would guess that Valterra's regulators are made by Marshal or some other reputable company and Valterra is a really big RV accessories supplier, can't believe they are going to falsely label a product.

[mleekamp]

Bruce, Thanks, this is what I thought but wanted it to come from others with experience. I looked at the true regulators just last night after getting home. I wondered if the cheap ones were just flow restrictors vs. true regulator.

[nomad297]

The cheap "regulators" are really nothing more than flow restrictors. They will reduce the flow pressure, but most of them will not reduce the static pressure -- the pressure will eventually build up on the low pressure side. You need to pay about $70.00 if you want to get a real pressure regulator.

Bruce

[westend]

Failed gauge but functioning regulator?