Crystal Falls Water Pressure (Converse: house, neighborhood, inspector)

[AUTigerinAustin]

We currently have a contract on a home in the Boulders at Crystal Falls.... yesterday, our Inspector found extremely low water pressure coming into the house (25 PSI !!). We are going to get the city and a plumber out to investigate, I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced similar problems???

[ok2tx]

I live in the Boulders at Crystal Falls and the water pressure is great! I purchased the home in September 08' and had the inspection right around then. The inspector said the water pressure was not to low but not to high - if it's to high you are more likely to water leaks.

[IC_deLight]

If you happen to live in an area that is at a significantly lower elevation than other homes in the neighborhood, you might have a "pressure reducing valve" (PRV) on the service line to the house. This is sometimes necessary to reduce line pressure to acceptable levels. The PRV may be necessitated, for example, when the property at issue is located at a significantly lower elevation than other customers of the water system.

If you have a PRV, it is possible that the PRV has been restricted too far. Perhaps there is a PRV that just needs adjustment. If there is one at this house, it is likely located near the water meter on the customer side. As I recall, the adjustment is "opposite" of what you might think is intuitive.

Turning the adjustment clockwise as you would normally do to shut off a spigot is actually the way to increase the pressure and flow. Conversely, turning the adjustment counter-clockwise as you would to turn a household spigot full-on actually reduces the pressure and flow. It's conceivable that someone who did not realize that the adjustment was "backwards" to normal hand-controlled valves/spigots might have turned it the wrong way hoping to increase the flow but achieving just the opposite.

Good luck.