Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV) leaking?

[needprotection]

Unfortunately I do not know much about plumbing and appreciate any guidance I can get. These pipes are about 9 years old and this is in the hot water closet above the hot water heater.

The pipes come out of the wall, down, into this black thing, then back down and back into the wall:

The water is a slow, steady drip. The water is seeping out where the brass/copper screw goes into the black thing. I checked the meter in the front yard and it's not moving at all. It seems like a washer or a seal inside this black thing (what's it called?) malfunctioned or something and is allowing the water to seep out.

The water is warm and the drip is very steady and consistent.

I guess my question is: Is this something I can fix and since this is hot water - I assume the water is shut off valve is somehwere around the hot water heater or around this pipe?

The pipe has me confused because it comes out of the wall and back into it - it doesn't interact with the hot water heater in any way inside the hot water heater closet.

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[johnjh2o]

That's a pressure reducing valve. They can be rebuilt but in most cases your better off to replace it.

John

 

[Chris]

That is a fairly inexpensive part and easy to change.

 

[havasu]

With the PRV having warm water, I can only assume your water heater does not have the one way check valves installed on it?

 

[Caduceus]

Do you know what the pipe supplies water to? The arrow on the PRV points away from the valve. If you shut off the valve you could determine what the pipe feeds. Maybe some more pictures, but not so close up, of the piping can give us an idea what it is for. It looks as if the PRV has been changed before (wrench marks on the unions).

 

[needprotection]

Can I just shut the water off right there at the pipe or do i need to do it from the street? Also - if I just unscrew that big screw there will the unit come out?

Thanks for all the help it is really appreciated

 

[LiQuId]

dont touch the big screw, this will adjustr the pressure downstream of the valve, messing with this could be vary big nightmare for you.

if you close the main shutoff, it should be easy to replace the prv after, call a plumber should be a cheap easy job... potential to be troublesome for someone not familliar in what they're doing

 

[Mr_David]

Do you know what the pipe supplies water to? The arrow on the PRV points away from the valve. If you shut off the valve you could determine what the pipe feeds. Maybe some more pictures, but not so close up, of the piping can give us an idea what it is for. It looks as if the PRV has been changed before (wrench marks on the unions).

Caduceus, You are good. I looked several times and wondered how the heck you could see that arrow.I almost had doubt, so I looked & looked & looked. I can barely make it out in the last pic.
You are probably right about it being replaced once because every thing else is painted

needprotection < from what?
That looks like a Braukman PRV. If hot water is running through it you should replace it with one that is rated for hot water. Check the little tag on the adjusting screw. It will probably have a brand name and rating on it.
and yes if you can secure the water you can undo the Unions and easily replace it

The tag says main shut off. If you turn this off and you loose all water supply (hot and cold ) then it's probably warm from hot water back flowing or just conductive heat that has migrated back from the water heater and a specially rated hot prv may noy be needed.