I was wondering if anyone knows what their water pressure is?

Question

I checked mine because I had been having problems with irrigation systems and water heaters blowing out. It was 122. I called the city and they gave me a range from 60 to 130psi. I put a pressure regulator in the main coming in that was preset at 50psi. My wife was not amused, she said it was too low, so I adjusted it up to 70psi. I am just curious if anyone knows what their pressure is. I am not interested in checking web links, been there done that, I am looking for experience.

Answer 1

45 to 65 psi is norm for most well systems. You are smart putting on the regulator.  70 will work good especially if you have a 2 story house.

Answer 2

Yes, mine unregulated is about 80 to 90 psi.   I set my regulator at 45 psi.  

I did, however, connect my sprinklers upstream of the regulator, and indeed I did have a couple poorly glued joints (thanks to the previous owner using old PVC cement) that blew out as a result.  

As it turns out, I didn't re-plumb the sprinklers upstream in order to get the higher pressure, but rather because the previous owner thought it was adequate to tighten the h**l out of threaded plastic joints rather than use thread compound or teflon tape.   Although the leaks are very small, when I had them downstream of the pressure regulator, the constant slow leak was just enough to lift the pressure regulator's valve just barely off the seat.   Under those circumstances, there was always a very tiny flow past the seat, and because the valve consists of a rubber pad that fits against the ring-shaped seat, the flow would occur only in a very tiny spot along the ring, and eventually would erode the rubber in that one spot (I replaced two rubber seats before I figured out what was wearing them out).    Once the rubber eroded, the regulator stopped regulating and would slowly allow the pressure to rise up to full 80 to 90 psi.  

So beware of dripping taps or other slow leaks when using a pressure regulator -- they'll kill it in short order!