Reduce Water Pressure to Eliminate Blown Joints

Learn how reducing the water pressure can eliminate the problem of blown joints. Find out how much pressure you really need for an adequate water supply.

LESLIE: Next up, we have a plumbing question from John in Arkansas.

John, what’s going on?

JOHN: Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

LESLIE: You’re so welcome. How can we help?

JOHN: I am remodeling a house trailer – I bought a handyman special and I replumbed the whole house; put all new plumbing from the ground all the way through the whole thing – and I keep blowing joints. It ain’t freezing and cracking or anything. It just comes apart. And I have had – for the last year, I bet I’ve had nine or ten blown parts.

LESLIE: I can sense the frustration in your voice.

JOHN: Oh, yes. Because I don’t have any idea how to stop it. And I’ve sanded inside, outside. I used the purple cleaner. I used the glue. I have had other people come and do it. And it doesn’t seem to matter; it just constantly blows apart.

TOM: Yeah. It sounds to me like the joints are not being put together right. Something is wrong with the joints. And I don’t know exactly what’s wrong but it may be the crimping mechanism that you’re using or whatever you’re using to tie these together. Because you should not be blowing that many pipes.

JOHN: I agree with you but I don’t know. Only two things I can really think of. One – we run real high water pressure where I’m at; like almost 90 pound of pressure.

TOM: OK.

JOHN: But I am probably 170 feet from the road connection.

TOM: Well, you’d still have high pressure. Why don’t you do this. Have you thought about putting in a pressure reducer?

JOHN: Yeah. I have thought of it. That’s probably 100 bucks or so over there, if I do it.

TOM: Well, you know, if you do have excessively high pressure, that could be part of the problem. The fact that it’s that far down the line is not going to cause it to lose pressure. So it’s probably still high pressure when it gets to the house. And so if you put a pressure reducer on it, that might make it less likely to blow joints.

JOHN: Yeah, that could be. I really hadn’t (inaudible). I had thought of it because I started to buy a different piece of property that didn’t have any utilities yet. I discussed it with (overlapping conversation, inaudible).

TOM: Yeah. If you can drop it down to 50 or 60 pounds, John, that’s going to be all you need. So why don’t you put in a pressure reducer and monitor it for a while and see what happens. OK?

JOHN: OK, thank you.

TOM: You’re welcome, John. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.