Pennstump
New Member
Hi. Newbie here. I've searched for help on this topic all across the Internet and I couldn't find anything. So, I thought I'd ask the pros.
I have pipes at the main that sometimes violently vibrate / chatter. This seems to happen during medium to heavy flow. Here's my setup:
Water comes up on the right, into a ball valve, into the pressure regulating valve (PRV), then tees up to the house via ball valve, and down to my yard's irrigation / hose system after a dual check valve. There are pressure vacuum breakers before the sprinklers. My system does not have an expansion tank. And, yup, those are all Sharkbite connections.
When either the master shower is turned on on the second floor or the hose is run from the end of my irrigation line, the pipes near where the water enters the house start to vibrate / chatter and make a lot of noise. I have just discovered that the noise seems to be coming from behind the PRV where the main takes a 90-degree elbow and moves into my main shutoff valve and the PRV. Please see the video of the vibrating here:
and see it in more of a closeup with a focus on the the vibrations stopping and starting here:
As soon as the master shower stops or the hose is turned off, the vibrating / chattering stops. Sometimes if I open any faucet in the house, even for a second, the vibrating / chattering can stop. These vibrations can't be good, especially for the Sharkbite fittings.
I have tried slightly closing the valves, but that didn't seem to do much. I then tried to adjust the pressure bolt on the PRV and it seemed to work for when the hose was on. I tightened the bolt until the vibrating stopped, but then when the irrigation kicked on (aka more water was flowing) it starting vibrating again. So, I adjusted it again and this setting only stopped the vibrating when both the hose and irrigation were on. It no longer stopped the vibrations for just the hose. I found something else by experimenting: when I turn off the valve to the house, there are no vibrations at all.
I would have to guess that the pressure regulator valve is causing this, but maybe it has to do with the dual check valve clogging up or failing. I can't tell if this qualifies as water hammer. How can I stop this from happening, replace the PRV? Add an expansion tank? Remove the dual check valve? Better secure the pipes in the wall?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! My next step on my own will be to replace the small Sharkbite PRV with a Zurn 70XL and see what happens, if I don't get a better recommendation. Or maybe I'll remove the guts of the dual check valve to see if it's limiting flow. Thanks in advance!
I have pipes at the main that sometimes violently vibrate / chatter. This seems to happen during medium to heavy flow. Here's my setup:
Water comes up on the right, into a ball valve, into the pressure regulating valve (PRV), then tees up to the house via ball valve, and down to my yard's irrigation / hose system after a dual check valve. There are pressure vacuum breakers before the sprinklers. My system does not have an expansion tank. And, yup, those are all Sharkbite connections.
When either the master shower is turned on on the second floor or the hose is run from the end of my irrigation line, the pipes near where the water enters the house start to vibrate / chatter and make a lot of noise. I have just discovered that the noise seems to be coming from behind the PRV where the main takes a 90-degree elbow and moves into my main shutoff valve and the PRV. Please see the video of the vibrating here:
and see it in more of a closeup with a focus on the the vibrations stopping and starting here:
As soon as the master shower stops or the hose is turned off, the vibrating / chattering stops. Sometimes if I open any faucet in the house, even for a second, the vibrating / chattering can stop. These vibrations can't be good, especially for the Sharkbite fittings.
I have tried slightly closing the valves, but that didn't seem to do much. I then tried to adjust the pressure bolt on the PRV and it seemed to work for when the hose was on. I tightened the bolt until the vibrating stopped, but then when the irrigation kicked on (aka more water was flowing) it starting vibrating again. So, I adjusted it again and this setting only stopped the vibrating when both the hose and irrigation were on. It no longer stopped the vibrations for just the hose. I found something else by experimenting: when I turn off the valve to the house, there are no vibrations at all.
I would have to guess that the pressure regulator valve is causing this, but maybe it has to do with the dual check valve clogging up or failing. I can't tell if this qualifies as water hammer. How can I stop this from happening, replace the PRV? Add an expansion tank? Remove the dual check valve? Better secure the pipes in the wall?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! My next step on my own will be to replace the small Sharkbite PRV with a Zurn 70XL and see what happens, if I don't get a better recommendation. Or maybe I'll remove the guts of the dual check valve to see if it's limiting flow. Thanks in advance!
