Waste of Water

[The Medway Handyman]

Hi All

I've done a lot of small plumbing jobs this week, just changing taps, sinks etc.

In each case I've had to turn the water off at the mains & drain the cold water tank to get the hot & cold off.

None of the tap feeds had service valves. If they had it would have saved time, but think about the waste of water. I reckon I've just poured away

600 litres of perfectly good water - in an area subject to hosepipe bans.

One customer saw the sense & got me to fit service valves, the rest said no.

Is it required under building regs to fit them on new builds?

I wonder why it isn't a requirement to fit them to all new installs & all alterations?

How much water do we waste every year doing stuff like this?

[John Rumm]

I once bought a small kit that contained a couple of rubber cone shaped "bungs", that has proved ideal for this type of job. You simply reach into the water tank and stuff one into the exit pipe. No need to drain down, or tie up the ballcock.

[nightjar]

It is now a requirement to fit isolating valves where pipes leave the cistern.

Personally, I don't like conventional service valves near taps. I often find the bore restriction affects the flow. Wherever practical, I use full bore Tee handle valves instead. They are also a lot easier to use when reaching under a bath.

Colin Bignell

[Andrew Mawson]

reach

In years past, I've heard of a carrot being used in the same way !

AWEM

[Dave Fawthrop]

|Hi All | |I've done a lot of small plumbing jobs this week, just changing taps, sinks |etc. | |In each case I've had to turn the water off at the mains & drain the cold |water tank to get the hot & cold off. | |None of the tap feeds had service valves. If they had it would have saved |time, but think about the waste of water. I reckon I've just poured away |600 litres of perfectly good water - in an area subject to hosepipe bans. | |One customer saw the sense & got me to fit service valves, the rest said no. | |Is it required under building regs to fit them on new builds? | |I wonder why it isn't a requirement to fit them to all new installs & all |alterations? | |How much water do we waste every year doing stuff like this?

Water is *cheap* in fact each extra gal^h^h^hlitre used costs me *nothing*. Despite this I fit Service valves in appropriate places every time I drain things down.

[Lobster]

Yes, for your average punter I would have thought that the selling point of these devices would be time and cost saved next time they need the tap or its washer replacing, rather than the cost of the water lost (which as DF says, is zero anyway to them unless they are metered).

David

[dennis]

If you are that worried you could buy a pipe freezing kit. ;-)

[mrcheerful]

freeze the pipe and fit a service valve. I wouldn't even mention that the job is ok without one. the tiny extra cost (less than a pound for a cheap one) is nothing compared to the labour saved, not to mention the water. if you haven't got freezing gear then the rubber bung in the tank outlet is the way to go.

[Aidan Karley]

I take it that by "service valves" you mean isolation valves that can shut off some parts of the system from mains pressure (or whatever intermediate tankage you're using), so that you can maintain service to some parts of the water system while working on other parts. EVERY time that I've had to work on part of my home system, I've stuck in another isolation valve to separate the relevant parts of the system. I figure that I'll be here for long enough that I'll draw some benefit from it, if only by explaining over the phone to the missus what to do to stop water gushing out of a leaking tap, or something. (I spend a lot of time on other continents, with sporadic satellite phone connection at $7/minute ; it pays to think of these things). I guess a lot of people like the horrors of house hunting and moving sooooooo mmmmmuuuuuucccchhhhhhh that they don't want to hang around to draw the benefits from such installations. As for new-build/ major rebuild ... surely it would make life so much easier if you're DIYing to be able to maintain at least a couple of taps, the CH system and a working toilet while you're doing whatever other work you're doing. Whenever I've built plumbing systems into our explosion-proofed metal portakabins at work, I've never had any of the technicians object to throwing in a couple of extra isolation valves, as long as they go into the "as built" drawings for the "unit". And it's saved hassle when we've got to site and found that some of the pipes have split between it leaving the yard on a lorry and getting to the rig a thousand km away on a boat.

[Pete C]

What about people throwing microwaves away because they can't/won't fix a blown oven lamp?

cheers, Pete.

[The Grim Reaper]

Most people think we live in a world where anything is readily disposable. _______________________________ The Grim Reaper

[Guy King]

The message from "The Grim Reaper" contains these words:

Like the bloke who threw out what is now my Dyson 'cos the cable going into the plug was broken.

[Dave Liquorice]

Can you get them in 22mm flavour? Screwfix only had them in 15mm, so I've got 22mm full bore lever valves to put under the bath and for the shower, they'll be behind the panel so the "industrial" look isn't a worry.

[John]

I got a pair of these one 15mm (Blue)

one 22mm (Red)

John

[nightjar]

The ones under my bath are 22mm, which I got from RS Components.

Colin Bignell

[The Grim Reaper]

lol! Well...... their loss, our gain :D ______________________________________ The Grim Reaper

[Guy King]

The message from "The Grim Reaper" contains these words:

it's all he lost.

[Matt]

Do those have plastic levers or metal ones?

[John]

Plastic

HTH

John

[Matt]

Bugger! I'd love to find compact ball valves with all metal parts. I hate plastic in apllications like this.