Hello,
I have a two year old sprinkler system in my house. Recently, it had a pin hole leak at one of the connections. My contractor came out and with the help of a new sprinkler contarctor (The original contractor wouldn’t come back.) fixed the leak. They also said that the water pressure coming to the house was too much for the system to handle. So, they installed a pressure relief valve. Unfortunately, when it releases, and it has twice in three weeks, i lose about 50 gallons of water. It is now also constantly dripping about a gallon of water every half hour. Is there a better way to deal with this water pressure situation? Can’t the water pressure be reduced before it gets to sprinkler system?
Any thoughts would be welcome.
thanks,
sean
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Replies
recko.. r we gonna fix yur sprinkler system too ?
Mike Smith
Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Sounds like your city water pressure is too high and you have pressure surges in the system. If it is momentary pressure surges a water hammer arrester may solve it. Talk to your utility about getting the pressure down. You can install a pressure reducing valve but to service a sprinkler system (fire I'm assuming) you must have a two stage. (read expensive) Do any of your pressure-thermostat valves on the water heater or boiler pop off too?
thanks for the advice.
I do have very high pressure coming into the house (175-185lbs).
As you guessed the water heater pressure valve was going off but the pressure reducing valve for the plumbing just needed to be cranked up and it is not going off anymore.
The fire sprinkler contractor just installed a pressure regulater on that system and it seems to have helped but I don't think it is the two stage type you mentioned as it looks from the outside to be the same type of regulater I have for the general plumbing. Do you think that is a problem?
sean
You said before that they had installed a pressure relief valve not a pressure reducer. They are two different animals. A pressure relief valve releases the pressure by allowing some water to flow to waste. As soon as the pressure is relieved it should shut off. Frequent operation often results in a dribbling valve as described. It may also be doing what its supposed to all the time, relieving the pressure.
A pressure reducer regulates the pressure by restricting the flow of water thru a variable orifice regulated by a diaphragm and spring pressure. It actually requires some flow to work properly. In the case of a sprinkler system you have no flow when the sprinklers are off. The valves are not meant to be shutoff valves. With low or NO flow there is often sufficient leakage to allow pressure to build up down stream to equal the upstream pressure. They are subject to having small sand particles etc. getting caught in the seat area and provididing a leakage path. A strainer should alway be installed upstream.
A piloted pressure regulator MAY help. It uses water pressure over a pilot diaphragm and may provide sufficient seating pressure to prevent leakage. It will also open rapidly in case of a sprinkler activation.