A pressure-reducing valve (PRV) sits where the water line enters your home, typically right near the main shutoff, and does one job: it steps down the incoming municipal water pressure to a safe, consistent level before it reaches your fixtures and appliances. That job matters because city supply pressure isn't set for any one house — it's set to move water reliably across an entire municipal system, and it commonly runs well above the 80 PSI maximum that plumbing code allows a home's interior plumbing to see. Without a working PRV, that higher pressure hits every pipe, valve, and appliance in the house on every use.
A failing PRV rarely announces itself quietly. The classic signs are banging or hammering pipes (water hammer that a PRV in good condition would prevent), fixtures that blow out or fail prematurely — supply lines splitting, toilet fill valves failing repeatedly, a washing machine hose bursting — and a water heater that's replacing its T&P valve or otherwise showing wear years before it should. Because these symptoms can look like several unrelated problems, we test your static pressure with a gauge first: a reading meaningfully above the normal range points straight at the PRV rather than any one fixture.
Sometimes the fix is repair — a PRV can be adjusted or rebuilt if the internal components are simply worn — but a valve that's failed structurally or is old enough that its parts are no longer reliable is a straightforward swap, usually completed without major disruption since it's installed at one accessible point near the main shutoff. If your home doesn't have a PRV at all and city pressure is testing high, installing one is the fix, not a repair to an existing part. Either way, we test, diagnose, and quote it as one flat number before doing anything.