3 Common Causes for the Failure of Your Water Pressure Gauge and Their Solutions

For effective flow of water in your home, it should have a given pressure depending on the pressure of water from your local water utility or from your water well if you have one. However, a problem could occur anywhere within the water course, leading to variant water pressures. A change in water pressure can be disadvantaging in two major ways. First, if the pressure is low, things such as your shower may not be able to heat up effectively. On the other hand, too much pressure can put a strain on your plumbing system as well as appliances. For this reason, you will need a water pressure gauge installed on your water tank systems or your water well pump to help monitor the pressure of water. Unfortunately, sometimes the pressure gauge may fail.

Here are the possible causes for the failure and how you can fix them. 

Clogging

Clogging can have a very negative impact on your water pressure gauge. If your water pressure gauge becomes clogged, it will freeze up. This is not good because the gauge may be indicating no pressure or normal pressure when the actual pressure of the water is too high. A strain in your plumbing system can lead to bursting of your water pipes, leading to maintenance expenses. The solution for this problem is to use diaphragm seals with flushing ports that will help flush out the diaphragm surface periodically.

Vibrations

Vibrations may sometimes be inevitable from the effect of the water pumps and this may not usually have a huge effect on the functioning of your water pressure gauge. However, excessive vibrations can lead to failure of your pressure gauge and affect its accuracy. This is usually the case when pressure gauges with a low-vibration resistance are used for high-vibration applications. A vibrating pressure gauge will make it very difficult to read the pointer. In addition, the impact of the excessive vibrations can make the pointer to shift off the zero mark, leading to inaccurate readings.

Vibrations can be solved by installing a direct-drive or a liquid-filled pressure gauge that will help resist the vibrations.

Pulsations

Pulsations or rapidly cycling media within the pressure system of your water pressure gauge can lead to erratic movements of the gauge pointer, leading to breakdown of the internal parts. To solve failure problems caused by pulsations, consider installing a restrictor together with a liquid-base case that will help dampen the pulses. Alternatively, you can replace your standard water pressure gauge with a direct-drive water pressure gauge that doesn't have linkages or gears.