Leak - this time it's from the stopcock

[JM]

Hi,

I've sorted out the leak on the washing machine valves I posted about last week (thanks to everyone who replied). Now I've got another problem.

The stopcock itself has a smallish leak - perhaps enough to lose half a pint of water per day. It's quite low down so it's difficult to put a large enough container underneath it so I'm getting a fairly wet stone floor in my kitchen, causing the carpet next to it to become fairly damp towards the edge.

My father advised turning the pressure right down to reduce the effect of back pressure (e.g. around a quarter turn from the 'off' position), which I've tried without success, unfortunately - the only effect was to reduce the water pressure to the taps around the house.

There is another stopcock/tap immediately after the water meter and I think that this one is pretty much 'full on'.

Any ideas on how to best deal with this?

Cheers, John.

[Bob Mannix]

You can't stop any (slow) leak by adjusting stopcocks (unless you turn them right off). For most of the time they are affected only by the hydrostatic pressure, which will be unaffected by how much a stopcock is turned on (as you discovered), wherever it is in the circuit.

You need to [turn off the one in the street] and mend the one indoors. You may be able to tighten the nut around the top of the shaft of the stopcock to reduce the weep. More likely, it will be easier to replace it (if in a copper pipe). If it's not in a copper pipe, you may be better off getting a plumber (easier said than done, I know) to fix it, if tightening things doesn't help.

[Christian McArdle]

Where is the leak from? What sort of valve is it?

If it is a old style stopcock valve (rather than a lever arm type) and is leaking from the handle stem, this is quite common and easy to fix. The stem emerges from a nut on the valve body. Simply tighten this nut up a bit. It is that simple. If this doesn't stem the leak (sorry about the pun), then the nut can be removed and new packing inserted (i.e. lots of PTFE tape). If you don't mind a bit of water, it is doable even without turning the water off and pretty dry if you do turn it off.

Christian.

[JM]

It's an old-style one. It's similar to the one at

but is obviously quite a lot older, using solder joints.

I will try tightening the nut tomorrow (a touch more water on the floor can't hurt that much, and the valve is 10 miles away from me) and see how it goes. The water does appear to be coming from between the nut and the stem. If needs be, I can then look into getting new packing inserted.

Thanks, John.

[JM]

Will correct my dad when I next speak to him :-)

I'll try tightening the nut first and see how it goes. It's in a copper pipe, but using solder joints and my plumbing skills leave a _lot_ to be desired. As you've said, it's hard getting plumbers in at the moment (I was told that there was a 14 day wait when I wanted the washing machines valves looked at - just got my dad to do it!)

John.

[John]

My tap had a similar problem. Turning the tap on tended to unscrew the gland nut as well.

I think such things are usually badly treated during the building stage and the owner then suffers the consequences.

To be honest - I would like one of those on-off switch type valves with the remote operating switch. A boon that would save emptying my cupboard to turn off the water.

Base unit is almost wrecked due to leaks.

[Set Square]

This type of tap is notorious for leaking round the gland, where the shaft emerges. They're ok for years, and then you turn them on and off a couple of times and they start leaking.

The gland nut is the upper-most one in the picture, about 1/2" down from the handle. When this is tightened, it compresses some soft material to form a seal round the shaft. If tightening it doesn't fix it, unscrew it (but not the works of the tap itself!) and slide it up the shaft towards the handle. Then wrap 3 or 4 turns of thin string tightly round the shaft, below the gland nut, and slide it down inside the space where the gland nut screws in. Then slide the gland nut back down, and screw it in and tighten it. This time it should be ok.

[JM]

Thanks to everyone who replied - I tightened the nut and the leak now appears to have stopped.

John.