Checking Valves: An Hour of Coaxing Could Save You!

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the challenges and experiences related to checking and repairing plumbing valves, particularly in the context of older systems. Participants share anecdotes about their encounters with malfunctioning valves and the precautions taken during plumbing projects.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes a struggle with a mains valve that took considerable coaxing to turn, prompting a question about others' experiences with their valves.
  • Another participant reflects on past plumbing projects where old and corroded shut-off valves often required replacement, highlighting the lack of shut-off valves in some installations.
  • A participant notes that valves not cycled for years may not operate easily, sharing a personal incident involving a frozen sill-cock and a makeshift repair that led to a water leak affecting the breaker panel.
  • One participant recounts a realization about a safer method to handle the situation by opening all sill-cocks to prevent water spraying onto the breaker panel.
  • Another participant humorously acknowledges their earlier oversight in handling the plumbing issue and suggests that a plastic sheet could have redirected the water spray more safely.
  • A later reply proposes an additional safety measure of grounding the stick used to operate the breaker panel.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants share similar experiences and challenges with plumbing valves, but there is no consensus on the best methods for handling valve issues or the effectiveness of various safety measures discussed.

Contextual Notes

Some participants reference specific conditions, such as the age and maintenance of valves, which may affect their functionality. There are also mentions of personal experiences that highlight the variability in plumbing situations.

wolram
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The ones that can never be turned off as shown in many films on TV, the hero is shown struggling drenched to skin some times with some lever and the valve will still not turn,
well i checked my mains valve and it took an hour with plenty of coaxing to get it to turn free, have you checked yours?
 
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That used to be the adventure every time I started a new plumbing project in my old house. Most of the shut-off valves were too old and corroded to shut off completely, so the first part of every project was turning off the main water supply to the house and replacing the shut-off valves (or just installing them where they never before existed and should have...who installs a bathtub with no shut-off valves?).
 
If a valve has not been cycled for years, there is a really good chance that it will not open or close easily. I have pressure tanks on the pumps for both the dug well and the drilled well, and I seat and open the isolation valves for those systems twice a year, My hairy moment this spring came when I activated the pump from the dug well and valved it into the sill-cocks for outside uses. Apparently, one of the self-draining sill-cocks had frozen some years back, and the previous owner decided that instead of replacing the bulged and split valve-body, he would make a bubble-gum repair by gobbing solder on the split. The air-and-water hammer that the piping experienced when I charged the sill-cocks was sufficient to blow out the solder patch and as luck would have it, the split was perfectly positioned to shower my breaker-panel with sheets of water. I put on a thick plastic glove, opened the breaker panel with a metal poker, and pushed off the well-pump's breaker with a wooden stick, then slammed the breaker-panel door shut with the stick. Lucky me - didn't get fried.
 
Just managed to collect enough brain-cells to have worked out a more reasonable fix. Open all the sill-cocks wide open so that the ruptured one wasn't spraying sheets of water on the breaker panel. Open panel, shut off breaker. Duh! Sometimes I'm such a dope!
 
turbo-1 said:
Just managed to collect enough brain-cells to have worked out a more reasonable fix. Open all the sill-cocks wide open so that the ruptured one wasn't spraying sheets of water on the breaker panel. Open panel, shut off breaker. Duh! Sometimes I'm such a dope!

:smile: A sheet of plastic on the breaker side of the sill-cock might have deflected the spray in a safer direction too. :biggrin:
 
Moonbear said:
:smile: A sheet of plastic on the breaker side of the sill-cock might have deflected the spray in a safer direction too. :biggrin:
Oh, sure! Display my hick-dummy ignorance to the world!
 
Another option would be to ground the stick you're using to poke the box.
 

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