Watts 263A Adjustable Water Pressure Regulator

[truxpin]

Hello all,

Just wanted to give a quick review & some well deserved "kudos" to my newest addition/improvement on the Airstream. ( I firmly believe that good service and good products deserve GREAT "word of mouth" advertising.

The park we're in has extremely high water pressure straight out of the source. So high in fact, I thought the hose looked like one of those funny balloons the clowns make hats & dogs from ! The quick and easy fix was to run down to Wally World and grab a basic in-line pressure reducer. This got us up & going but left us with weak (but safe)pressure.
In my search for an adjustable regulator with a gauge, I turned up many options from bargain basement deals to high dollar stainless "trophies" .
I came across an on-line store that had pretty much the high & lo over the entire gambit of available options, and more importantly, they had JUST what I was looking for!

RV Water Filter Store: Standard Filter Canisters for Whole RV


To say that I had any "personal" contact or interaction would be a lie. This is what I will say about this company....and anyone who shops over the internet should appreciate this....

Their web site was easy to browse, search or just find specifically what I was looking for. Everything broken down into catagory's & sub-catagories. Most items are listed with pictures and enlargements and good descriptions about each item. Prices, shipping costs etc... all there for your viewing pleasure!

Here is what I started my search looking for specifically.....
A- Had to be a Watts regulator (well built & easily repairable)
B- Adjustable
C- Oil filled sight gauge
D- Had to have 3/4" garden hose fittings already attached


Here's what I found....



Watts model 263A Adjustable water pressure reguator with stainless guts and a stainless oil filled gauge. $79.95 an actual shipping cost of $10.62 and on my step in 3 days from CA.
Well Done!
For a one stop shopping experience, I am very pleased. We now have what I call "residential" flowing water in the Airstream, and when we travel and need to conserve a bit of water, we can simply dial back the pressure to what suits our needs.

***(Disclaimer) ***

I should also add that I DID need to "modify" the built in water regulator on the Airstream. Our 2001 comes with a Shurflow 50psi regulator built into the City Water inlet. It required some dissasembly, cleaning and a bit of drilling. (it will eventually be replaced with a similair inlet without the regulator)

If you are in the market for something like this I'd say that for the roughly $90 I spent on this, it was money well spent. If your budget or taste is not that high they also have similiar items at a lessor cost that will do the trick also.
Enjoy....

[daveswenson]

So my question is "If there is already a 50 psi regulator built in, why do you need another one?"

[Silver Goose]

Originally Posted by daveswenson

So my question is "If there is already a 50 psi regulator built in, why do you need another one?"

Call it the "belt and suspenders" approach, but over time an un-monitored unseen internal regulator can become ineffective, particularly if used in hard water areas where deposits bind up the working parts of the regulator. For those who are concerned about this, a regulator with a gauge offers piece of mind that the supplied water pressure is really in check. An alternative would be to install a tee in a water line under the sink and install a gauge there.

A few yeas ago, the fellow camped next to us had a nice brass regulator, but installed it on the trailer end of his hose. We had both left for the day to take in the local sights and when we came back, I saw where someone had turned off his spigot after his hose had ruptured flooding both of our campsites. The hose must have looked like a fat sausage before it let loose.

[truxpin]

Originally Posted by daveswenson

So my question is "If there is already a 50 psi regulator built in, why do you need another one?"

Good Question Dave. Untill I re-read my post I see your point and wasn't really clear about it.
I actually didnt know there was a built in regulator until I finished with the install of the new adjustable one.
I KNEW the pressure in the park was way to high to connect to...
I purchased a "quick-fix" brass reducer that I thought, reduced too much...
purchased the adjustable regulator and found that there was still some restriction (somewhere)
Turns out it's built into the city water connection, AND (at least on my Airstream) is not easily accessable. 4 screws undid the housing around the inlet but it's also tee'd into an outdoor spigot right next the inlet. To make matters worse, there was no slack in the pex lines so I had to disassemble the compartment that houses all these fittings and jam my hand inside and undo the threaded fittings to release the inlet.
In hindsight I'm glad I went through all this. What I found in the regulator was just short of amazing! Sand, gravel, string and mold (yuk) The screen filter had completely corroded away, allowing all sorts of goodies in there. I probably would have noticed it earlier but it's such tight quarters inside the water box that we put on a 45 degree hose fitting on the end of the inlet fitting to make it easier to hook up the hose AND close the compartment up.
Had I known this regulator was there in the first place, I'd have just gone out & bought a inlet without the regulator and simply replaced it. Being a service technician by trade, I took it apart & disabled it.
There are things on these Airstreams that should be much more accessible, the regulator is one of them. ( I think) It's a major player in the water system and should'nt be located in an area where the owner cant get to it easily.

Now, water flows directly from the spigot, gets adjusted to the pressure I want (75psi) into an everpure filter system, and into the AS uninterrupted. No swollen hoses and NO more crap in my fixtures!

[daveswenson]

Thanks for the clarification. I always use a filter between the spigot and the AS. Hopefully this will keep my regulator from gunking up like yours did. I don't really want to go through the stuff you had to.