micky
2024-05-23 17:43:39 UTC
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Permalinkinstructions say is preset to 50 psi. I bought a new pressure gauge,
also from Watts, and it says the pressure is 40psi.
So I called Watts Technical (they have 7 or so divisions, none of which
is called Watts, but I choose option 8, Other. to ask them which one was
likely wrong. He surprised me by saying the gauge was likely right.
That the spring in the regulator is maybe he said carbon steel and you
couldn't depend on it. He told me to turn clockwise to increase the
pressure, which I knew, but that it was 5-6 pounds per turn. That's good
to know. He said he uses 65, almost 70 pounds of pressure, and he
mentioned the shower and the kitchen sink sprayer as places where it
makes a difference. I only have 40 and I have taken only baths since
the water is back on. I should take a shower and see if I don't like
it. He said lower pressure is good for water conservation and
mentioned California where it's a big issue, but he's in Boston where
they have too much water this year.
I would probably be happy with 40 pounds. Just takes longer for the tub
or toilet to fill, but it hasn't seemed too long. I've been refilling 2
liter soda bottles and that seems to go pretty fast. Might be harder to
water the lawn but I don't do that anyhow.
I do use the dishwasher. That depends on water pressure doesn't it?
And I tend to watch the clothes washer fill up, to decide whether to add
more soap or clothes, etc. That already takes too long.
And if I don't raise it to 50, it's one more thing I should leave in a
note for the new owner some day, because it will never occur to him that
the pressure is adjusted wrong.
Then I asked about whether I caused my own problem, and yes, I did. IIUC
he said 3 days at 32 is enough to freeze the basement, and the weather
here was well below that for 9 days. Use heat tape next time. Same
things Bob told me.
He said it puts stress on the metal and it could fail 3 months later, as
happened to me. Also what Bob said. (I still need to learn more
details about the leak my neighbor had. I don't think they even go away
in the winter, much less turn off the heat.)
He was not in a hurry at all, gave me his name and extension number if I
have more questions. Told a story about putting in pipes in Maine
where it the ground was so hard at 3 or 4 feet it was hard to go deeper.
Seemed like a guy old enough that he'd rather stay inside and answer
questions instead of doing plumbing, especially in the winter.
I should also cut away the rubber lip around the sump, in case something
like this happens again. Everyone should do that. Isn't that just
there so that when they poured the cement floor of the basement, it
didn't overflow into the sump?
When I put the pipes together, I had a very small leak and a teeny leak,
both where the pipes screwed into the regulator. I'd used teflon tape
before but maybe only on the TP valve in the water heater. That's not
tapered and this is, and it warned me not to tighten too much or I'd
crush the threads. So I didnt' tighten enough.
I thought I'd messed up bad, in that it would be much harder to tighten
some more when there was water in there, compared to air, which is
easier to squeeze out. Any truth to that? And would have to take it
apart again. But I did just tighten some more and stop the very small
leak and it's hard to tell about the teeny leak, becuse the humidity in
the basement seemed to increase suddenly and thre are hundreds of little
water drops on the whole length of the pipe, so I can't tell if there is
a leak or not.
"Very small" was originally 10 drops a day. Teeny was 1 drop a day. I
thought they might get smaller on their own, like the faucets tht turn
themselves off, but they didn't.