The Best RV Water Pressure Regulator

Campground water pressure is not regulated to anything in particular. A pedestal can deliver well over 100 psi, and RV plumbing — plastic fittings, push-fit connections, flexible lines run inside walls — is generally designed around something closer to 40–60 psi.

A burst fitting inside a wall is a slow leak you find late, and water damage is the thing that writes trailers off. The regulator that prevents it costs less than a tank of gas.

Adjustable or preset

Preset regulators limit to a fixed pressure, typically somewhere in the 40–50 psi range, with nothing to set. They are compact, cheap and you can leave one on the hose permanently. The downside is that they often throttle flow more than necessary, so your shower is weaker than it needs to be, and you never learn what the pedestal was doing.

Adjustable regulators have a screw and usually a gauge. You can dial pressure up for better flow when the supply is good, and down when it is high. The gauge is the real feature: it tells you the pedestal pressure, which is how you know whether your weak shower is the regulator or the campground.

Brass, and lead-free

Two things to insist on. Brass rather than plastic: the regulator sits on the ground at a pedestal, gets stepped on, driven over and kicked, and a plastic body cracks. Lead-free brass: ordinary brass alloys contain lead, which is not what you want in a potable water path. Every regulator worth buying states lead-free explicitly.

An inlet screen is a useful extra. It catches grit before it reaches your plumbing, and on an older campground supply that is not theoretical. The screens clog, so clean it occasionally — a clogged screen is the single most common cause of “my new regulator killed my water pressure.”

Setting it

1. 1

   Fit the regulator at the spigot

   At the campground end of the hose, not at the trailer. The whole hose is then protected, and so is the filter if you use one.
2. 2

   Open the spigot fully and read the gauge

   With no water running inside the trailer, the gauge reads static pressure. Note it. Anything over 60 psi is worth regulating down.
3. 3

   Adjust to about 50 psi

   Turn the adjustment screw — usually with a wrench rather than fingers — until the static reading is around 50. Check your trailer manual, as some makers specify lower.
4. 4

   Run a tap and re-check

   Dynamic pressure with water flowing will be lower than static. If flow is poor, check the inlet screen before adjusting further.

If your pressure drops after fitting one

This is the most common complaint and it has three usual causes, in order of likelihood:

1. A clogged inlet screen. Unscrew, rinse, refit. Fixes it most of the time.
2. A preset regulator set lower than you need. Nothing to do but swap to an adjustable one.
3. Too much hose. Fifty feet of 5/8 in hose drops noticeable pressure compared with twenty-five. Use the shorter hose when you can.

The verdict

Buy adjustable with a gauge. The value option does the same job as the premium one for noticeably less, and the gauge is worth having whichever you choose. Keep a preset in the drawer as a backup if you like — they are cheap enough that having a spare is not extravagant, and it is the one item in this hub you genuinely should not camp without.