Water pressure regulators, or pressure reducing valves, are an important part of your home’s plumbing system. They help keep the water flowing through your pipes at a regular, consistent pressure. You might find that the pressure in your home is too high or too low and are wondering how you can adjust the pressure yourself. In this article, we’ll go over how pressure regulators work and why it’s so important to have one that works properly. Then, we’ll give you an overview of the adjustment process so you can tweak your home’s water pressure to your liking.

If you notice regular fluctuations in pressure and have to frequently adjust the regulator valve, it’s probably time to start looking for a replacement. Having a new water pressure regulator professionally installed will set you back a few hundred dollars. But it’s a worthwhile investment considering the risks of leaks, pipe bursts and appliance failure that can result from a faulty regulator.

Regulatingvalve

Before you start adjusting the pressure regulator, get an accurate reading on your home’s current water pressure. Attach a pressure gauge to any hose spigot and take note of the reading.

PRVvalve

This is a one-piece unit with ALL the internal valves attached. Made of a thin resilient material, the Gasket-Valve fits between the comb and draw reedplate without any adhesive. Its precision design aligns all the valves perfectly to the reed slots, with the minimum valve footprint sitting on the reedplate. Combined with a slightly dimpled texture to reduce capillary attraction, this eliminates sticking, and reduces valve 'slap' noise to virtual inaudibility. Plus, because all the valves are part of the same piece of material, they lie flat by default. Aside from the superior valve fit and action, there is another big plus of the Gasket-Valve: it functions as a sealing gasket too! It's well known that the fit of hard metal reedplates and harmonica combs is never perfect, and many players go to great lengths to sand them flat. As you tighten up the reedplate screws the Gasket-Valve slightly compresses between the hard comb/reedplate surfaces and fills any gaps, sealing the parts together for superior airtightness. FITTING Once you've disassembled your harmonica, fitting the Gasket-Valve is simplicity itself. I show how in the tech video, for the main types of diatonic harmonica: lipped-comb Richter harps, and traditional sandwich-comb Richter harps. ORDERING OPTIONS I've designed my unique easy-fit Gasket-Valves for a wide range of popular harps. All you need to do is choose the brand/model you play, plus the correct tuning option, and you'll be posted Gasket-Valve parts that fit your harp perfectly. I've designed two main styles of diatonic Gasket-Valves, to suit the two main tuning scales. In the standard Richter Tuning used by 90% of players, the breathing pattern reverses at hole #7. In the lower 6 holes the draw note is higher than the blow, and vice-versa in holes 7-10. For half-valving, in order to retain the original Richter bending notes (holes 1,2,3,4,6 draw, & holes 8,9,10 blow), whilst adding the benefit of valves on the normally unbendable notes, you need inside valves on holes 1-6 and outside valves on holes 7-10. I add one more inside valve on hole 7, to allow valved bending expression on it. This is the style of Gasket-Valves you need for Richter, Paddy-Richter, Country Tuning, Melody Maker, Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor and any other tuning where the breathing pattern reverses at hole #7. In the past 20 years I've pioneered Regular Breath tunings for diatonic harps. Because they have just a single breathing pattern and allow draw bending on every hole, they're quickly becoming more popular. In these tunings, the draw note is ALWAYS higher than the blow note, in all 10 holes. Well-known examples are my own PowerBender, PowerDraw and PowerChromatic tunings, as well as Will Wilde’s tuning (which is based on PowerBender). Other great Regular Breath tunings are Augmented, Diminished and Easy Diatonic. The correct way to half-valve all these tunings is to have all 10 valves on the inside, and none on the outside. To ensure you get the correct Gasket-Valve set for the harps YOU play, please make the right choice in the drop-down options in the Payment box.

Water pressure is huge for the health of your home plumbing network. And while a high-pressure shower might feel great in the morning, water pressure can (and often does) get too high. Any sort of high water pressure will put stress on your home in a number of ways.

Water hammer, which is a banging or hammering noise in your pipes, is a common sign that your pressure regulator is nearing the end of its lifespan. The noise happens when high-pressure water suddenly stops in your pipes, literally hammering into the pipe walls. You’ll probably notice water hammer after you shut off a fixture or flush a toilet.

Pressure Reducing Valve

Water pressure regulators are devices that are installed near your water main. They take high pressure water flowing from a municipal water supply and lower the pressure to a level more suitable to homes and their fixtures. Any home built after the 1980s should have a pressure regulator already installed.

Water pressure regulators, or pressure reducing valves, are an important part of your home’s plumbing system. They help keep the water flowing through your pipes at a regular, consistent pressure. You might find that the pressure in your home is too high or too low and are wondering how you can adjust the pressure yourself.

Waterpressureregulator for house

In this article, we’ll go over how pressure regulators work and why it’s so important to have one that works properly. Then, we’ll give you an overview of the adjustment process so you can tweak your home’s water pressure to your liking.

To ensure you get the correct Gasket-Valve set for the harps YOU play, please make the right choice in the drop-down options in the Payment box.

Watervalve

As far as plumbing jobs go, adjusting your water pressure regulator is pretty easy. You don’t need too many tools, and you can finish the task in less than an hour. If you experience a sudden drop in pressure, you might want to check in with the local water supplier and see if the problem is on their end before you make any adjustments.

Next, locate the water pressure regulator. Look for a “bell shape” that’s close to your water main and sits on top of the pipe. On top of the regulator should be an adjustment screw and a lock nut. The adjustment screw raises and lowers the water pressure, but before it can be adjusted, you need to loosen the lock nut below it.

A big factor stopping more players trying valves in their harmonicas is the fiddly process of fitting them: one-by-one, with glue. It's skilled work, and easy to get wrong. After nearly four decades of laboriously fitting individual valves to my own harps I finally came up with a better idea: the Gasket-Valve! This is a one-piece unit with ALL the internal valves attached. Made of a thin resilient material, the Gasket-Valve fits between the comb and draw reedplate without any adhesive. Its precision design aligns all the valves perfectly to the reed slots, with the minimum valve footprint sitting on the reedplate. Combined with a slightly dimpled texture to reduce capillary attraction, this eliminates sticking, and reduces valve 'slap' noise to virtual inaudibility. Plus, because all the valves are part of the same piece of material, they lie flat by default. Aside from the superior valve fit and action, there is another big plus of the Gasket-Valve: it functions as a sealing gasket too! It's well known that the fit of hard metal reedplates and harmonica combs is never perfect, and many players go to great lengths to sand them flat. As you tighten up the reedplate screws the Gasket-Valve slightly compresses between the hard comb/reedplate surfaces and fills any gaps, sealing the parts together for superior airtightness. FITTING Once you've disassembled your harmonica, fitting the Gasket-Valve is simplicity itself. I show how in the tech video, for the main types of diatonic harmonica: lipped-comb Richter harps, and traditional sandwich-comb Richter harps. ORDERING OPTIONS I've designed my unique easy-fit Gasket-Valves for a wide range of popular harps. All you need to do is choose the brand/model you play, plus the correct tuning option, and you'll be posted Gasket-Valve parts that fit your harp perfectly. I've designed two main styles of diatonic Gasket-Valves, to suit the two main tuning scales. In the standard Richter Tuning used by 90% of players, the breathing pattern reverses at hole #7. In the lower 6 holes the draw note is higher than the blow, and vice-versa in holes 7-10. For half-valving, in order to retain the original Richter bending notes (holes 1,2,3,4,6 draw, & holes 8,9,10 blow), whilst adding the benefit of valves on the normally unbendable notes, you need inside valves on holes 1-6 and outside valves on holes 7-10. I add one more inside valve on hole 7, to allow valved bending expression on it. This is the style of Gasket-Valves you need for Richter, Paddy-Richter, Country Tuning, Melody Maker, Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor and any other tuning where the breathing pattern reverses at hole #7. In the past 20 years I've pioneered Regular Breath tunings for diatonic harps. Because they have just a single breathing pattern and allow draw bending on every hole, they're quickly becoming more popular. In these tunings, the draw note is ALWAYS higher than the blow note, in all 10 holes. Well-known examples are my own PowerBender, PowerDraw and PowerChromatic tunings, as well as Will Wilde’s tuning (which is based on PowerBender). Other great Regular Breath tunings are Augmented, Diminished and Easy Diatonic. The correct way to half-valve all these tunings is to have all 10 valves on the inside, and none on the outside. To ensure you get the correct Gasket-Valve set for the harps YOU play, please make the right choice in the drop-down options in the Payment box.

Pressure regulators are important because most municipal water suppliers pump water at very high pressures — often four or more times higher than your home can handle. That’s because municipal water sometimes has to service high-rise buildings, high-elevation neighborhoods or fire hydrants.

Keeping the water pressure in your home at a safe level can help keep your pipes, fixtures and appliances safe. Pressure regulators help reduce high water pressure coming from your municipal supplier, but sometimes they need to be adjusted to either lower or raise your water pressure. Knowing how to adjust your pressure regulator and keeping a close eye on your home’s water pressure will help you protect your home.

REGULAR-BREATH TUNINGS (£12):PowerBender,PowerDraw,Will Wilde Tuning,Augmented,Diminished,Easy Diatonic,Bebop,WholeTone,Solo*,Orchestra* * (These are not strictly Regular-Breath Tunings, because one hole in each octave reverses the breath. However 10 inside Gasket-Valve style is the correct choice.)

In the past 20 years I've pioneered Regular Breath tunings for diatonic harps. Because they have just a single breathing pattern and allow draw bending on every hole, they're quickly becoming more popular. In these tunings, the draw note is ALWAYS higher than the blow note, in all 10 holes. Well-known examples are my own PowerBender, PowerDraw and PowerChromatic tunings, as well as Will Wilde’s tuning (which is based on PowerBender). Other great Regular Breath tunings are Augmented, Diminished and Easy Diatonic. The correct way to half-valve all these tunings is to have all 10 valves on the inside, and none on the outside. To ensure you get the correct Gasket-Valve set for the harps YOU play, please make the right choice in the drop-down options in the Payment box.

Waterpressureregulator

Waterpressureregulator how to adjust

If you're inclined to make some more, I'd be glad to buy a dozen, so that all of my Seydel 1847 Major Cross harmonicas can have this upgrade. Tony Eyers, USA

Water pressure is one of the most critical measures of your home’s plumbing health. Not only is high water pressure damaging to so many components in your home, but sudden changes in pressure can be signs of other problems that need to be addressed. But how can you keep a watchful eye on your water pressure Here at Moen, we know all about the importance of pressure. Our Flo Smart Water Monitor and Shutoff works by constantly measuring the pressure in your home’s water network in combination with the flow rate and area temperature. Not only that, it even performs daily automatic Health Tests, which are pressure loss tests on the entire supply line to detect a leak as small as one drop per minute.

Pressureregulator

Loosen the lock nut by half a turn with the crescent wrench. Turn the adjustment screw counterclockwise to lower the pressure or clockwise to raise the pressure. Only go one full revolution at a time and get a new pounds per square inch (PSI) reading with your pressure gauge. Once you’ve reached your desired pressure level, tighten the lock nut on the pressure regulator.

Like most plumbing components, your water pressure regulator isn’t going to last forever. The average pressure regulator has a lifespan of about ten years. The question is, when do you need to replace it?

RICHTER & RELATED TUNINGS (£15):Standard Richter,Paddy Richter,Country,Melody Maker,Natural Minor,Harmonic Minor,Major Cross REGULAR-BREATH TUNINGS (£12):PowerBender,PowerDraw,Will Wilde Tuning,Augmented,Diminished,Easy Diatonic,Bebop,WholeTone,Solo*,Orchestra* * (These are not strictly Regular-Breath Tunings, because one hole in each octave reverses the breath. However 10 inside Gasket-Valve style is the correct choice.)

Check your harmonica's tuning to make sure you order the correct Gasket Valves. Common examples are below: RICHTER & RELATED TUNINGS (£15):Standard Richter,Paddy Richter,Country,Melody Maker,Natural Minor,Harmonic Minor,Major Cross REGULAR-BREATH TUNINGS (£12):PowerBender,PowerDraw,Will Wilde Tuning,Augmented,Diminished,Easy Diatonic,Bebop,WholeTone,Solo*,Orchestra* * (These are not strictly Regular-Breath Tunings, because one hole in each octave reverses the breath. However 10 inside Gasket-Valve style is the correct choice.)

And since it connects to your wireless network, you get up-to-the-minute alerts no matter where you are. As soon as something out of the ordinary comes up, you’ll get a notification. The Shutoff will even close the water main automatically if it detects a leak to help prevent water damage.

I've designed two main styles of diatonic Gasket-Valves, to suit the two main tuning scales. In the standard Richter Tuning used by 90% of players, the breathing pattern reverses at hole #7. In the lower 6 holes the draw note is higher than the blow, and vice-versa in holes 7-10. For half-valving, in order to retain the original Richter bending notes (holes 1,2,3,4,6 draw, & holes 8,9,10 blow), whilst adding the benefit of valves on the normally unbendable notes, you need inside valves on holes 1-6 and outside valves on holes 7-10. I add one more inside valve on hole 7, to allow valved bending expression on it. This is the style of Gasket-Valves you need for Richter, Paddy-Richter, Country Tuning, Melody Maker, Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor and any other tuning where the breathing pattern reverses at hole #7. In the past 20 years I've pioneered Regular Breath tunings for diatonic harps. Because they have just a single breathing pattern and allow draw bending on every hole, they're quickly becoming more popular. In these tunings, the draw note is ALWAYS higher than the blow note, in all 10 holes. Well-known examples are my own PowerBender, PowerDraw and PowerChromatic tunings, as well as Will Wilde’s tuning (which is based on PowerBender). Other great Regular Breath tunings are Augmented, Diminished and Easy Diatonic. The correct way to half-valve all these tunings is to have all 10 valves on the inside, and none on the outside. To ensure you get the correct Gasket-Valve set for the harps YOU play, please make the right choice in the drop-down options in the Payment box.