Reducing City Water Pressure

Is there a way to reduce water pressure at an outdoor faucet?

Here is the situation. My brewery is located in a detached garage about 40' from the city water supply. I have a drinking water hose connected to an outside faucet on the house which runs to a water manifold in the garage for brewdays. My water pressure seems to fluctuate. I have ruptured two hoses and always occurs when I have left the water on for a period of time without using it. I have tried with the faucet wide open and partially open and does not seem to make a difference.

I would rather not mess with the water pressure in the house as it is a rental and seems normal. I put a water pressure regulator on the faucet. It successfully reduced the pressure in the hose, however it caused the house plumbing to groan and shreik to the point I thought something was going to rupture.

Does anyone else have any experience or advice they could offer?

A reservoir of some sort is the usual large scale method, for you I am not sure. That also would not protect your hoses.

Maybe plumb a PVC line instead of hoses.

Have you tried an adjustable regulator? I would take a trip to a hardware store and get a pressure gauge and see what your pressure is at the faucet.

The regulator isn't going to cause any damage to the indoor plumbing, it's just annoying. I have a check valve inline for my soda kegs and it groans and chatters every time the line pressure changes. If you put a small RV surge tank between the tap and the regulator, that will reduce the pressure pulses going back into the house.

There is a "whole house" water pressure. Here in TX, it's out near the curb under a plastic or metal cover. Sometimes you need to call, sometimes its a hand lever, sometimes a 7/8" nut.

I have high water pressure +1 for the regulator. Before that i got the "commercial grade" hoses form osh and they have been good for over a year. we tend to leave the watering wands on. the cheepie hoses would bust on the first hot day.

I use an RV type water pressure regulator on my faucet which works very well. It reduces the pressure to 50 psi and causes no noise in the house plumbing whatsoever. You can find these at many hardware stores or RV dealerships. I think I paid under $10 for the one I have. Here's a link to a similar one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BQ7WH2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

IMO, noise in the plumbing system of your house is likely do to water hammer or possibly air trapped in the lines somewhere. The pressure reducer should not cause any problems at all. I would check your house water pressure. It may be that the main pressure regulator is malfunctioning. That can happen. Your house pressure should be about 60-70 psi. Pressure much higher than that is not good for your washing machine for one thing and it's probably not good for things like toilet valves either. If it's higher than 70 psi when you check it, try adjusting the main regulator. Just back off the adjusting shaft until you get it down to something manageable, just as you would on a CO2 regulator.

Catt22, that is the same regulator I have now. I'll pick up a pressure testing unit and see where I am at pressure wise. The trouble is, to my knowledge there is no adjustable regulator on my water supply (house was built about 70 years ago).

I'll investigate the in ground box out front as chrislehr suggested and see if there is anything there. Otherwise an expansion tank might be the answer. I have pretty much ruled out hard piping out to the garage as it is a rental and there is about 20' of concrete patio between the house and garage.

Thanks all for the ideas.

cascadia said:

Catt22, that is the same regulator I have now. I'll pick up a pressure testing unit and see where I am at pressure wise. The trouble is, to my knowledge there is no adjustable regulator on my water supply (house was built about 70 years ago).

I'll investigate the in ground box out front as chrislehr suggested and see if there is anything there. Otherwise an expansion tank might be the answer. I have pretty much ruled out hard piping out to the garage as it is a rental and there is about 20' of concrete patio between the house and garage.

Thanks all for the ideas.

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Typically, the box out front will house only a service shutoff valve and nothing else. Your meter is normally located inside the house near where the service comes in from the street and often there will be a pressure regulator just after the meter, but not always. Expansion tanks are normally only used on the hot water supply at the water heater. I doubt that an expansion tank will eliminate the noise problem and it certainly won't reduce the water pressure. I'm not a plumber, so don't rely only on my limited experience with this stuff. You can buy a water pressure testing gauge at Home Depot or any plumbing supply house. They are not at all expensive. I would definitely check the pressure before doing anything else.

Catt22 said:

Typically, the box out front will house only a service shutoff valve and nothing else. Your meter is normally located inside the house near where the service comes in from the street and often there will be a pressure regulator just after the meter, but not always. Expansion tanks are normally only used on the hot water supply at the water heater. I doubt that an expansion tank will eliminate the noise problem and it certainly won't reduce the water pressure. I'm not a plumber, so don't rely only on my limited experience with this stuff. You can buy a water pressure testing gauge at Home Depot or any plumbing supply house. They are not at all expensive. I would definitely check the pressure before doing anything else.

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You may bot be a plumber, but you're spot on. Most homes do not have a pressure regulator. You get what you get and you will have to deal with it at the hos bib since it's a rental.

Groaning through a Pressure Reducing valve is very common, and does not indicate any problems whatsoever. You might be able to find one which doesn't make any noise, but no damage should occur with the one you've got.