When my new washer was hooked up, the faucet sprang a small leak, where the stem goes in. My husband bought a new faucet for it but now we cannot get the old one out...it's been in there a long time. We tried heating it with a blowtorch but it won't move. What do plumbers do? We are afraid to force it - afraid of breaking the pipe or making it worse. Way it is now, we can turn off water between washer use - but would really like new faucet. Thanks.
Dorothy
A lot of information missing here. Is it iron pipe or copper? Is it buried in a wall or other inaccessible location or out in the open where you can get to it.
Frankly most plumbers will just pick up a larger wrench and if something breaks, it gets replaced. 90% of the time, that is going to be the final answer anyway.
Kinda hard to diagnose from here. The stem leak could have been fixed by tightening or replacing the stem packing.
But that would have left you with the old "faucet" setup.
Are you talking about a wall mount faucet setup (into a laundry sink) with additional valves feeding the washer or just a pair of valves that feed the washer.
In either case, you the joint cannot be loosened.
Try tightening (~1/8 turn max) the connection that will not loosen and then try to loosen.
cheers Bob
On 12/28/2004 2:07 PM US(ET), Dorot29701 took fingers to keys, and typed the following:
A Faucet? Perhaps you mean a supply valve? First, you have to shut off the main water valve. Secondly, you have to drain the pipe to the supply valve. Any water remaining in the pipe near the valve acts like an insulator, preventing the joint from getting hot enough to unsweat the solder. After shutting off the main, you can remove the hose to the washer and allow the pipe to drain into a pail, or a couple of pails. You will have to open a faucet in a sink/shower/tub above the washer valve, to break the vacuum before the water will drain from the washer valve. Once that is done, you can pull the valve apart to replace the washers in the valve, or unsweat the valve's pipe joints to replace the whole valve. A blowtorch cannot supply enough heat to unsweat a soldered joint, you need a propane or mapp torch. If all of the above does not make sense to you, or to your hubby, call a plumber.
There are two faucets, hot and cold, in the wall - along with drain in the middle - easily accessible. They are in the wall behind the washer. A square is cut out of the wallboard ... like any other laundry room set up I've seen. The water pipes for the laundry sink are separate. It's alongside the washer. The label on the new faucet says "Boiler Drain" Inlet:Female IPS. Outlet: 3/4" Hose
Think my husband did want to remove the packing and he couldn't do that either. The parts are all stuck together.
I'm letting them soak in W-D40 (got them wrapped in plastic) and hope enough seeps through where they join to loosen them.
i hope you understand that it acts as a conductor. ...thehick
I will try again. There is a square cut-out on the wall behind my washing machine. It has a hot water pipe (standing upright), then a drain pipe, then another pipe standing upright (cold water) and on top of each of these pipes is a faucet type gadget. The faucet is screwed onto the incoming water pipe (not sautered) and there is also a place on the body of the faucet, to screw in the hose from the washing machine.
These may be called supply valves. I don't know. What I do know is that the cold water valve is leaking a little and we would like to take it off and put on a new one.
The old one is on too tight. It was not sautered on - it has just been on there for a long time....
If anyone has any helpful suggestions we would be grateful. Really do not want to have to pay a plumber to come out and do this.
Normally it will be a lot easier to fix the leak in the valve, than to replace the valve. It sounds like it is a packing going bad. Does it leak around the part under the knob that turns it on and off? If so it likely only need the packing replaced.
I know you said that the packing nut also could not be removed, but frankly I have never seen one that was frozen on, although I suspect they happen. Be sure to turn off the water supply before doing any of this. You may want to get a DIY book from the library or better buy one at the local DIY center. The books are not expensive and offer pictures to make the job a lot easier to understand.
OK so far so good. The valve will unscrew from the pipe. Is the pipe a silver color or is it copper? If it is sliver colored you have galvanized pipe and you need to put a pipe wrench on the pipe and an open end wrench on the valve. It will unscrew you just need to get the right tools.
If you have copper pipe, then the pipe could be soldered to a threaded fitting. If this is the case one wrench goes on the hexagional part of the fitting and the other wrench goes on the valve. The idea here is to put all of the pressure on the wrench on the end of the pipe and not twist the pipe itself.
Another thing you might have is a compressuon fitting. This has a threaded collor that threads on to the back of the valve. Here the idea is to hold the valve still and turn the coller.
Your husband might look at the valve carefully nd then go to the hardware store to see exactly hor the thing works first.
Good luck,
First, as another poster mentioned, shut off the house water before attempting to replace the valve!
I'm assuming the valves are separate? Most of the valves I see are combined into one unit with a single handle that shuts off both the hot and cold. Obviously, you would not be able unscrew those without cutting the pipes.
If the valves are separate, you "may" be able to unthread them from the pipe if you are POSITIVE they are not soldered to the pipe. Try some thread penetrating fluid (WD-40 if you can't find anything else) and give it time to work. You'll need two wrench's, one to keep the pipe from turning, and one to turn the valve. Make sure not to twist the pipe as you are trying to unscrew the valve.
If you are able to get the valve off, be sure to put a few wraps of teflon thread sealing tape on the male fitting before threading the new valve on. Otherwise you may get leaks around the valve.
Depending on the type of piping you have, it may be easier to just cut the pipes and replumb with new pipe and fittings. You may need to hire a plumber for this if you do not have experience doing this.
If you have old galvanized steel pipes and low flow out of the valve, you may get the valves off only to discover the pipes are corroded and clogged inside. This could quickly turn into a larger job. I recently had to replace about 20 feet of pipe in my in-laws house because of this. The pipes had corroded shut and there was no hot water at the bathtub. I replaced it with CPVC plastic piping to prevent future corrosion.
Anthony
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