What is a really good brand for pressure reducing valves?

[sebmaster]

Hi,

I need to fit a drop-tight pressure reducing valve to supply a garden tap and associated accessories, as the house has very high water pressure. I do not want to worry about this PRV - I want The Best quality valve so once its installed I don't have to worry about it leaking after 12 months (like the cheap one on Screwfix).

I was looking at the Honeywell D05F, but only one place (Advanced Water) that I can find stocks them. I am wary of choosing any component which has only one supplier. Honeywell does not say this line has been discontinued though. If its the most reliable, its the one I will get.

Can someone tell me what are the trusted brands that I should be looking at for devices like this? Is the most reliable the Honeywell, or is there another brand I can look at as well? What about Reliance Water Controls?

Sj

 

[Dan Robinson]

http://www.screwfix.com/p/honeywell-pressure-reducing-valve-with-gauge-15mm/69396

 

[sebmaster]

Thanks Dan! But that is a D04F, which isn't drop-tight, and so will allow the pressure to creep in no-flow conditions (and the hozelock connectors to pop off eventually!!) I am leaning towards Reliance Water Controls at the moment as they sell a PRV with all the working bits in a single cartridge making maintenance easy, and they have all these WRAS/ISO approvals etc, but I'd like someone who has actually used them before to say whether or not they make good stuff.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Apologies... missed that one.

Reliance are very good, and if it Honeywell it will be orderable from other places, but on uncommon items it can take some time. I had to get the DF06F version of this recently and it took a while.

 

[sebmaster]

Yes its so easy to do! If I hadn't spent ages trying to figure out if it came with the threaded tails as well I probably would have missed it too and ordered it, luckily I saw it before. (Also odd is that the product code they use isn't on the spec sheet that Honeywell provide.)

Thanks for letting me know what you think of Reliance, glad to hear its good! Advanced Water is again the only place that has the 320/315is that's obvious, but AW seems to be a pretty good store, and if as you say I can get replacements even if they take a while I feel much better about that.

 

[copea]

I bought a Honeywell D06F-3/4K from City Plumbing for £50 a couple of months back (their part code is 528476).
Much cheaper than I could find elsewhere.
That's a 22mm fitting, but they do a 15mm compression fitting too.
Hopefully you've got a CP near you?

 

[Dan Robinson]

Mine was the 1.5" one

 

[sebmaster]

Thanks copea! My nearest CP is a little far but not too bad. The important thing though is knowing there are multiple places to get the parts.

1.5"... Dan it probably took so long to arrive cause they were making one for you!

 

[Dan Robinson]

Had to come from Canada - which is where the customer was ironically in their second (or was it 4th) home waiting for me to fix their hot water. Would have been quicker for them to pick it up and bring it home with them as it only took 10 minutes to change it over for the duff one that was already fitted

 

[sebmaster]

Ha! For hot water... that must be one hell of a shower they have!

 

[Dan Robinson]

4 and two baths. One shower had a 10" head and body jets.

 

[Tipper]

I had to replace a failed Caleffi valve, one of three reducing pressure from 12bar(!) to three flats, after 5 years in use. I couldn't get a replacement Caleffi locally so fitted a Honeywell instead. The first one let by immediately and frankly was useless. A second Honeywell replacement was no better. In the end I ordered another Caleffi and that is working well.
As to the need to reduce from 12bar SWWater said it was not their problem as they only guarantee a minimum not a maximum! Interestingly their own pipe work just before the meter out in the road also failed after four years due to high pressure too!

 

[St0rmer66]

I've got a 22mm Caleffi in my house which doesn't let by. All as part of a pumped mains setup I've installed (12l/min max).

At first I used a cheap one from screwfix but the waterways were so small it restricted flow. Any which claim to be both 15mm and 22mm in one unit seem to be this way!

 

[Happyplumber]

Caleffi actually manufacture alot of the valves including pressure reducing as well as pressure release and combination valves I find their gear excellent and no.issues to use