The previous owner did a very poor job on some plumbing in my basement. It is all copper with ball valves. The valves have green corrosion and some are starting to leak from the sweat joint.
I will need to replace the valves.
Are ball valves or gate valves a better choice for water shutoffs?
Can't you simply reuse the valves that are there and install them better? Ball valves are nice, no need to replace them.
nate
Agree w/ Nate -- as long as the valves themselves weren't damaged, you're only problem appears to be to re-sweat a couple joints.
Make sure you clean things up well, use proper flux for the solder chosen and should be good to go. OBTW, be sure to use an adequate heat source so that can heat the fitting quickly and be done rather than taking a long time. This is a common cause of poor joints.
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Ball. Gate valves have too many failure modes. Crud in the seat, it won't close. Steam breaks it won't open (and sometimes won't close either). Stem can corrode with no way to inspect.
If they're leaking from the sweat joint it's a bad solder job or you're getting loading on the joint that's cracking it.
The valves are covered in green corrosion. I am not 100% sure where the leaks are coming from. I am afraid to mess with them, as I don't want a flood. These have been bad for 10 years. I am going to buy valves and add new ones for new runs. I am also going to reroute some pipes that cover windows, mounted to stairs and such. It is a mess.
So should I get ball or gate valves? Or I guess it does not matter
de quoted text -
As far as I know, ball valves are less prone to failure with repeated use than gate valves and certainly easier to operate.
See here:
For the new ones, I'd go w/ ball valves.
You'll have to cut the water to do the work anyway so don't see the issue particularly other than time. I suppose for only a couple I'd probably end up just going w/ new material simply to avoid the time required to clean up the old ones during the job and through the old ones into the spares bin for later reuse (of course, I've got stuff there that goes back to the 30's that's not found a use for yet, but that's another story... :) )
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Ball valves are the best but what and why the corrosion, and has it ruined the valve body. Can you re solder them in place, use Map gas to try
e:
ahh valves arent expensive, if i am redoing something over 10 years old I would use brand new valves, small percentage of cost:)
Ball valves are preferred. Clean well and re-sweat the leaky joints. I doubt you need new valves, unless they are damaged.
What all this talk about mapp gas? Isn't that for commercial work? I've been plumbing with a regular propane torch to sweat brass valves, no leaks. Wrap the valve with a wet rag to help prevent heat damage.
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