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1301 Review
64 Karma

Review on πŸ”§ Zurn Wilkins 1 NR3XLDU Pressure Reducing Valve by Rob Allen

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Works Great - Hydraulics, Pneumatics and Plumbing

The pressure in my house peaked in the mid 80's after taking too long to install a regulator. Zurn Wilkins 1-NR3XLDU 1" looked like the right one. The old one wasn't available in 1991. The old one had a port on the inlet side and the other used a threaded port. I can't figure out why only one port was used, but this does I've seen it before. I decided to add a fitting on the outlet side. The fittings on the ne regulator weren't sweaty, they were threaded. I couldn't find any info on the type of fittings in the product description, so give I gave it 4 stars.. After having the extra fittings I went ahead and ordered them.If your plumbing is copper you will need to use copper MIPs in the fittings.In my setup I was only able to use the existing fitting on delivery .I had about 5". a piece of copper above the regulator, I just cut it in half and boiled the remaining piece from the tee it went into. The hardest part was getting the solder out of the tee. I installed a new valve in the lower fitting, after that I was able to determine the length of the copper, it is necessary to do the installation. I figured it out, I dry fitted everything, once new everything was fine. He pulled out the regulator and soldered a new fitting and copper to the tee. You don't want to solder the valve with the rubber gaskets installed, it's better to solder the brass fittings before installing the copper in the tee. Also, make sure you have a coupling nut on the copper piece before soldering, there's nothing worse than sweating. Then I just installed the valve with gaskets and didn't break my arm in the process. Turned on the water and all was well. By the way, sweat and sweat are soldering or desoldering. Now it works: Like Charm works as it should. Setting: As mentioned, the factory setting is 55psi? it was off, I was about 45psi so it wasn't a surprise, your intake pressure will regulate how much adjustment the internal spring will need. My house was 80+ psi. I set the regulator at 65psi (I have a pressure gauge on my system) with the sink wide open and at the same time I flushed the toilet to 60psi. After a shower I feel like I actually have more leaks. I think that after opening the old regulator a pile of rust came out, most of the "metal" parts were corroded, probably the flow was limited. I'm glad the regulator works great whenever there's a chance you might end up with a defective part. Should you try it yourself? What matters is that you yourself have retired from the tube industry. I thought it was pretty easy.

Pros
  • Fittings
Cons
  • Expensive