How to check your water pressure &
the health of your pressure regulator

Excess water pressure can cause leaks, fixture damage, and result in wasted water. This video demonstrates how to easily and inexpensively check your household water pressure.

If your water pressure is over 80psi, a pressure regulator is called for to prevent this damage and water waste. If you already have a pressure regulator, you'll still want to check the pressure as these devices do wear out and fail. Their failure is often subtle. As demonstrated in this video, the pressure regulator is showing signs of not being able to deliver the full set pressure under demand (i.e., pressure drops to far when water is in use). Other failure modes include the inability to effectively limit high water pressure spikes that lead to leaky faucets and mysterious toilet running issues.

Time to complete	5 min, but you may want the test to run overnight.
Materials	water pressure guage, channel locks or other plyers
Costs	about $10 (for a basic pressure gauge.), about $25 for one with the lazy hand as shown above.
Skill level	easy