If it has been hours since the faucet was last used, it could take 3 – 5 minutes before you feel hot water. That wastes a lot of water and can be quite annoying sometimes. Gallons of water can easily be wasted every time this happens.

Testing flow rate was also pretty easy. I marked off 5 gallons in a bucket, attached a short length of hose, and timed how long it took to fill the bucket. A little quick math, and we have flow rate in gallons per minute. Unregulated, this spigot filled the 5 gallons in 17.4 seconds, which yields a flow rate of 17.2 gallons per minute. And while it's unlikely you'd ever use close to 17 gallons per minute in your RV, generally when it comes to flow rate, more is better. So the closer a regulator tested to this upper limit of flow, the better.

Finally, the Watts Adjustable Pressure Regulator did eventually work, but unless you like spending 5 times more money than you need to, there is nothing to recommend this regulator over the standard and less expensive RV water pressure regulators. While it is true that this regulator is serviceable (and perhaps mine needed service), the rebuild kit itself costs more than the Camco regulator, and is a significant percentage of the cost of the other two RV regulators. The flow rate through the Watts regulator was also sub-par. You could buy 3 to 5 of the other, better flowing regulators for what you pay for this unit. And those other regulators are smaller, lighter, and easier to store.

Stef and I have a hose bib in the back yard of The Fit RV headquarters that has insanely high water pressure. (It's connected directly to the meter without going through our home's pressure regulator.) With no regulator attached, my Watts Pressure Meter was showing a pressure of 115 psi. THIS is the kind of water supply your RV dealer warned you about! Hooking up directly to this spigot would likely cause problems with your RV's plumbing system. So to pass the test, a regulator would need to bring this pressure down to a usable 50psi or so.

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There are two things you'll care about when choosing a water pressure regulator: Pressure and Flow Rate. And while pressure that's too high will potentially ruin your RVs plumbing, a flow rate that's too low will leave you with a poor shower experience. It does little good to control the water pressure if you choke off the flow rate to a dribble in the process, so I needed to test both.

One of the great things about traveling in an RV is that you've got a more or less "regular" plumbing system with you, even in some pretty remote and beautiful places. Sometimes, you run that system off your onboard pump and fresh water tank. But if you're staying at a campground that supplies water, you can hook your rig up directly to the campground's water supply.

This is the essential concept of the hot water recirculation pump. It keeps the water moving through the hot water system like an invisible circular bucket brigade so there will be no more water wasted down the drain and instant hot water at your faucets!

The high flow Valterra model did allow a bit more pressure than Winnebago recommends. I leave it to the reader to decide if that's an acceptable risk. For us, it's not an issue because we don't hook up to city water -- we use the regulator only to protect our water filter when using the gravity fill. The Valterra Stainless Steel regulator is also the only one of the properly working regulators that doesn't use brass.

I had some difficulties with this regulator. First, the built in meter read about 20 psi greater than our test gauge. I knew that the regulator's gauge was incorrect because it still read 20 psi even while sitting on the bench, so I had to do a little math to even use it. Next, I found the regulator difficult to adjust. When I initially adjusted it to 50 psi, no water flowed through at all! After a little tweaking, I did successfully get the meter adjusted and flowing at the recommended 50 psi. At that pressure, this regulator only allowed 7.7 gallons per minute of flow. This was noticeably less flow than any of the other regulators.

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There is a less-common variation of the retrofit style pump called an “on-demand” recirculation pump. This pump is mounted at the faucet instead of at the water heater. It has either a button or a sensor that turns it on so that it runs only when someone enters the room.

Every hot water faucet has a hot water pipe that travels from that faucet back to wherever your water heater is located in your home. In the North Dallas area where we work, the water heaters are mostly located in the garages and attics. (In older homes like those in parts of Carrollton, Richardson, southeast Plano, etc… water heaters can also frequently be found inside closets off of the main hallway in the house.)

The dedicated return line pumps are installed on a special hot water return line that is plumbed to the farthest fixture. These are usually installed when the house is built. They are often required for larger square footage homes. Otherwise, the wait time would be ludicrous.

There are two main categories of hot water recirculation pumps – dedicated return line pumps and retrofit crossover-style pumps.

Of the remaining regulators, all three of those marketed for RVs did an adequate job of taming the pressure and providing an adequate flow rate.

But wait a minute! Without a loop or some way to return the water, there would be no flow. That’s where the crossover tee comes in. Sometimes called a “bridge valve”, this ‘tee’ fitting is installed under the sink that is farthest away from the water heater. It is installed between the hot and cold pipes of the sink so that it “bridges” between the hot and cold water systems.

These pumps are typically installed right next to the water heaters on the return line so they are pushing water toward the water heater. Sometimes they are set to run all the time. Other times, they are set to run on a timer so that the homeowner can save a little electricity when quick hot water isn’t necessary.

What if your house wasn’t installed with a dedicated recirculation return line? It would be a big project to go back and install a new hot water plumbing line in a house after everything has been covered up in sheetrock and trim.

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Hopefully, this information will help you to pick the right water pressure regulator for your RV. I've summarized the relevant info in the table below. Good luck and we'll see you on the road!

I wanted to test a variety of pressure regulators. And as I looked through my RV supplies, I had 5 available to test. (I just realized this reveals way too much about my personality...) These regulators ranged from the very cheap to the rather expensive. How did they do? Let's find out!

A tankless water heater is no different, either. Tankless water heaters do not provide instant hot water to the faucets – this is a common misconception. A tankless water heater heats water instantaneously as it passes through the heater, but it can’t magically get that hot water instantly to the faucets on the other side of the house.

This was also a failure, as the regulator more or less self-destructed when I cut through it. Don't attempt this at home -- you'll wind up with a jumble of busted parts.

As the cheapest regulator in the test that actually worked properly, it's tough to argue against the Camco 40055 Brass Water Pressure Regulator. I don't know how this will hold up over time, but for the price, it's tough to beat. Let's call it the best value of the bunch.

Have you ever turned on a hot water faucet only to have to wait FOREVER for the water to get warm? Read this article to learn how you can get instant hot water to your kitchen and bathroom faucets.

The pump itself is very similar. Instead of being mounted on a hot water return line, though, it is usually mounted on the hot water outlet of the water heater. That way, it’s pushing water out of the tank and down the normal hot water pipes to the fixtures.

Because of these factors, the initial investment of the pump/installation, and the added cost of maintenance, a recirculation pump isn’t high on the list as a way to save money. Convenience and comfort are the main motivations when choosing to add one of these pumps to your system.

Available wherever RV accessories are sold, this model is also the best selling pressure regulator on Amazon.com. It claims to reduce the pressure to a safe 40-50 psi. It's also certified as a low-lead fixture.

Depending on the house floor plan, it may take more than one of the crossover valves to get hot water quickly to all of the faucets. Also, because of the way it works, there sometimes is lukewarm water that comes out of the cold side of the faucet for a few seconds when it is turned on.

And while hooking up to a campground water system is pretty convenient, it can also be risky. You see, you don't always know what you're getting. Is the water exceptionally hard? Has it been chlorinated? And what's the pressure of that water? It's this last question that we're concerned with today.

We covered the basics in this article, but if you are dealing with other types of systems (like with tankless water heaters) or more complicated setups (multiple hot water zones/loops) it can get more complicated. Designing and troubleshooting these setups can start to resemble designing a hydronic heating system – which is a science in and of itself. Fortunately, though, this isn’t common in your typical North Dallas residential application.

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Basically, this type of system creates a pure, simple loop in the hot water system. Hot water flows circuitously through this loop alone. The loop is designed in such a way that all of the hot water fixtures are very close to the path that it takes so there is never any substantial wait time across the whole system.

This is the regulator Stef and I currently travel with. It's made of stainless steel, so no worries about lead content. It's supposedly set at a higher psi -- 50-55. This is technically above the recommended 50. I had personally bought into the promise of 10-15% additional flow, so I was curious if it delivered on that.

And in use, this regulator did indeed reduce the pressure as advertised. The 115 psi was reduced to an RV-safe 47 psi. When I tested the flow rate, this regulator was able to fill the 5 gallon bucket in 32.8 seconds. That equates to a flow rate of 9.1 gallons per minute. That's about 53% of the unregulated flow rate. (9.1 gallons per minute, by the way, is still considerably more than the typical 2 gpm shower head.)

If you want to get ‘instant’ hot water or want to save water usage in your home, a recirculation pump is a great way to do that!

Now, when hot water is being pushed down the pipes by the pump, this valve allows the cooled-off water to cross over into the cold water system where it loops back to the water heater. Very ingenious! Furthermore, these valves have a mechanical wax thermostat inside them that closes when hot water reaches the fixture. That way it doesn’t put too much hot water into the cold water system.

Because city water pressure varies from location to location, we recommend obtaining an in-line water pressure regulator to prevent damage to any components, connections, and seals in your fresh water system.

Installing a retrofit pump or replacing a dedicated return line pump are usually pretty straightforward jobs for a plumber. The biggest variable is the soundness of the pipes that the new parts will attach to.

This is another lead-safe brass fixture. This model from Valterra also claims to reduce the pressure to the 40-50 psi range.

These devices simply connect in-line between the supply hose and the city water input on the coach. We recommend regulators that control water pressure to 50 psi. max.

The length of this hot water pipe determines how long it will take for hot water to get to your faucet after it leaves the tank. When not in use, the hot water cools off in the water pipes and is the first to rush out when a faucet is turned on.

As you can see in the photo, this regulator performed as advertised. It regulated the pressure down to 47 psi. This would be safe for just about any RV. Going through this regulator, I was able to fill the 5 gallon bucket in 32.6 seconds, which equates to 9.2 gallons per minute.

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RVs are designed to accommodate water at a certain pressure. If you pressurize your water system beyond what it's designed for, you may wind up with burst pipes, leaky fittings, or compromised appliances in your rig -- and you don't want that. For Winnebago RVs, the recommended pressure and the recommended protection is spelled out in your owner's manual, as in this excerpt:

For these purposes, these pumps are highly recommended. They also tend to be very reliable as well – as long as they are manufactured by one of the larger, reputable companies like Grundfos, Taco, Etc…

Okay. So we know we need a water pressure regulator, but which one? Many models are available to RVers, are there any differences? I decided to test several available models to find out.

This is where pumps come in. What if hot water never got a chance to just sit there in the pipes and cool off? What if water flowed through all of the hot water pipes in a big loop so that it was constantly being kept nice and hot by the water heater?

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They can save money spent on water, but they do make the water heater work more. This is because the water heater is now keeping the entire hot system warm instead of just the water inside the tank. The larger the system is, the more heat loss occurs (which makes the water heater turn on more frequently to compensate). This decrease in efficiency and the small amount of electricity they use will offset some of the savings.

If the shut-off valves/supply lines/etc… are old and deteriorated, they may need to be addressed during the installation (new fixture shut-off valves, new water heater valve and supply lines, etc…).

I had picked this up from the local home center. It's intended for sprinkler applications, and not RV usage. I wouldn't normally recommend using this for your RV, but included it in the test as a "last resort" option.

This was certainly the most expensive of the regulators I had, and it is also serviceable (these things do wear out, eventually). But did this expense and serviceability justify paying 5 times as much?

Feel free to reach out if you have any recirculation-related questions. We are an award-winning gas line plumber in the north DFW area, and our reputation for integrity, craftsmanship, and upfront pricing speaks for itself.

Well, the first and most obvious conclusion was that you shouldn't use a pressure regulator designed for a drip irrigation system to protect your RV. The Dig 25 psi regulator was such a failure, I decided to destroy it to prevent any temptation to use it in the future. Since it was plastic, I tried to saw it in half to see what was inside.

Unfortunately, as you can see, this unit was nearly worthless as a pressure regulator. Though it claimed to be pre-set to 25, I found the actual pressure was "regulated" to 82 psi! This is completely unsuitable for RV use. On the plus side, this regulator was the least restrictive of the bunch on the flow. I was able to fill the 5 gallon bucket in only 26.0 seconds, which equates to a flow rate of 11.5 gallons per minute.

This is the problem in a nutshell. Unless you have a mini water heater under every faucet, you can’t have instant hot water.

In testing, the Valterra Stainless Steel regulator delivered on both its promises. The water pressure was regulated to about 52 psi. This is slightly more than Winnebago's recommended 50 psi. When we used this regulator to fill the 5 gallon bucket, it was able to complete the job in 28.8 seconds. This equates to a flow rate of 10.4 gallons per minute, which is about 14% greater than the brass model.