This is a common Valley pattern that's easy to miss. Whole neighborhoods went up in the same year, with the same builders, the same materials, and the same pressure regulators, and regulators are equipment with lifespans. After 15 or 20 years, the street's regulators are aging on the same schedule as everything else. When they start failing, house by house, the symptoms show up the same way everywhere, banging pipes, blasting showers, appliances wearing out early, and almost nobody connects them to the regulator at the front of the system.
Pressure above the healthy range wears on everything downstream, every joint, every fixture, every supply line, and the water heater hardest. Constant strain can wear a tank out years ahead of its warranty, and in a valley where hard water already shortens equipment life, high pressure adds to that wear. The PRV keeps the street's pressure in the range the house was built for. When it fails, there's usually no warning, and the house goes back to taking whatever the street sends.
It starts with a gauge test. A licensed contractor gauges the actual pressure, checks the regulator, and explains in plain English whether it's working, failing, or finished, with the options for each. Since so many Valley homes went in the same years, if a neighbor's regulator has failed, yours may not be far behind. Even in a newer house, high pressure causes the same wear, and a gauge reading shows what the pressure has actually been.
