Sometimes a hidden problem can cause issues over a long period of time. What’s maddening about this is that the damage is difficult to discern and the affects not immediately traceable to the root cause. I had such an issue that cost me a lot of money and frustration before I was finally able to get it resolved. Hopefully you can learn from my experience so you don’t encounter a similar problem.

The issue was my water main pressure was too high. I only discovered this after several years and hundreds of dollars spent fixing the symptoms. These included:

• Damage to my reverse osmosis water system.
• Damage to my reverse osmosis tank.
• Half a dozen broken sprinkler heads.
• Multiple irrigation line breaks.
• An old water softener that literally blew its top.
• A new water softener that developed a crack in it’s control valve.

The problem was only fixed after I had my new water softener repaired. What happened is that the valve on top of the unit was cracked and the metal parts were corroded due to water intrusion. Since the unit was only a couple of years old, this should not have happened. The technician measured the water pressure from the main and it was above 110 PSI, which is much higher than it should be (70-80 PSI). Suddenly, the list of water-related fixes I had to make over the previous five years made sense.

Soon thereafter, I had a plumber install a water pressure reducing valve so I could keep it at 75 PSI. It’s a fairly small unit that gets installed between the water main and the line that goes inside the house. Mine looks something like this:

Watts Water Pressure Reducing Valve

The total cost of the repair was around $300, which should prevent future water pressure problems. While I should have installed this a long time ago, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. My recommendation is that you have your water pressure checked and consider installing one of these if that water main is over pressure. It will save you a lot of headaches and prevent costly repairs. Learn from me!