I have two leaking lawn sprinkler valves: one is moist at the valve-to-pvc connection and the other is dripping solid at the valve-to-pvc connection. Is there a recommended way to stop these leaks (silicone?) without cutting out the valve, re-seating and re-cementing onto new piping? I have placed a mirror underneath and see no visible signs of hairline cracks so I assume the moisture is coming from the connection itself. Thanks in advance.
I checked dejanews.com and see the best alternative is most likely to cut the valve out and use pipe tape on the threading. It doesn't look like any tape was used previously and is likely the reason it is leaking now. I was trying to avoid this as both valves are inline with one feeding into a Tee at each end with different sized pipes branching off. It will take some major surgery but I guess I have a three day weekend coming up.
I fixed mine by just cutting the leaking side, and putting it back together with a PVC union. A union on both ends of the valve is nicer, but I only needed to fix one end. :)
You can thread pvc schd40, but thinner stuff not so much. You can get a cheap pipe threading kit for 1/2", 3/4" and 1" pipe from harbor freight when it comes on sale.
Or as I did, buy two unions, one for threaded and one for slip, and mix and match so that the valves each get a threaded half, and the pipe gets the slip half glued on. A short threaded nipple connects valve-union.
sdb
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