I've always thought of a ball valve as being what used to be called a
ballcock. That is, a valve controlled by a float in a cistern or whatev er.
I've just come to translate "válvula de bola" and going from the S panish wiki page to the English version, it shows an inline tap and calls it a ball valve.
Have I really been wrong all these years? Or is Wiki wrong?
Just checked OED and it backs me up.
Before you get all OCD about this,
I wouldn't say the valve that a ballcock controls is a ball valve, the ones I've disassembled are piston valves.
Ball valves are just that; a sphere with a hole drilled through it, which can rotate so the hole lines up (or doesn't) with the inlet/outlet.
OMG! Wickes is as bad as me!
The correct term for the thing in your cistern is float valve.
You are confusing ballcock and ball valve - different things.
I suspect people use ball valve often enough for a ballcock (aka float valve), that you are not wrong - but not right either!
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