I'll search again for the stopcock, but it looks as though it may be simpler just to freeze the pipe for the short time it takes to add an inline valve to the end.
The trouble is that I have only ever frozen copper pipe, but this is grey plastic. Can you freeze that? Or is there some other method?
It did occur to me that a mole grip would squeeze the pipe shut, but I doubt that would be a good idea.
I dont know whether you can, but cold weather certainly can. Howver tne thermal conductivity is far lower than copper, so it will take much longer.
No.
Plastic is not as infintely deformable as rubber brake pipes!
You can get pipe squeeze devices for the purpose:
However they are really designed for HDPE mains style supply pipes and not speedfit style barrier pipe like used on water and heating systems.
They will still work on the those (although some will need a packer to close small enough), but it might not do the pipe much good long term.
Grey pipe is usually BS 3505 PVC or the equivalent ABS pipe. That is a rigid pipe, which you cannot squeeze shut, or at least not if you hope it will recover again afterwards. It also has quite thick walls (at least 3mm on the smaller sizes) so I doubt that a freezer spray would work. You need to find the stopcock.
Don't know but those freezer kits are pretty expensive for just stopping the water. I'd imagine the pipe might be a bit of a bother. Do the instructions not say what sort of pip you can freeze?
You see no stopcock, but there has to be a way for the supplier to turn off the water somewhere. Brian
replying to GB, Iggy wrote: Definitely use the stopcock, even if it's for the whole place out at the street...there has to be one. A frozen plug could and likely would just shoot out, unless its at a bend...and freezing isn't good for any kind of piping. Otherwise, you might want to consider a single Jet Swet or a whole kit (
Go to the street stopcock/water-meter and shut it off there.
If it's ABS pipe you can do it. If it's PVC, it goes brittle and may crack open. No easy way to tell the difference.
Takes a lot longer to freeze than copper (good insulator)
My concern over freezing would not so much be the wall thickness (obviously the combination of thickness and conductivity is a *factor* in the speed of freezing) but rather that both PVC and ABS will become more brittle at freezer temperatures. But might be worth doing a trial on an odd bit of pipe, especially if the stopcock turns out to be failed.
Is it in a place where a bit of spillage is unacceptable? If not, prepare a full bore valve attached to a bit of hosepipe to direct the flow harmlessly somewhere else.
Then it's just a case of chopping the pipe quickly, slapping on the new valve (fully open of course) and tightening the joints more or less at your leisure. Once thightened, THEN you can close the valve.
Tim
If not, the put t
Which, IME, is rather important. I have, on a couple of occasions, used freezer spray on copper pipe to change a jammed stopcock. However, I found that, even under ideal conditions, using an entire can of spray barely gave me enough time to do the job.
ABS has an operating range from -40C to +60C, but PVC becomes susceptible to impact damage at very low temperatures. However, if the pipe is not disturbed or subject to impact when very cold, it should survive.
Unless there is a line of print along the pipe, giving the maker, the standards it complies with, the material and the pressure rating.
I'll have another look at it next time I'm round, but I'll take the advice to FTFSC. (Find the f*** stop c*ck.) There's too much at stake if it fails spectacularly.
If it can't be found, I've got one of these in stock for emergencies:
It's just rather expensive compared to a pipe freezing kit. I've done pipe freezing in the past without any problems, but never on plastic pipe.
I did a failure investigation a few years ago on a 40 year old plastic pipe failure in some industrial plant (8 inch iirc). Turned out they had a mixture of PVC and ABS in (different) pipe runs, all solvent weld. I think the failed one was ABS (axial split along one of the extrusion spider lines). As you said in another post, the pipes did have material and standards markings, but they were sometimes a bit difficult to find. These were carrying water at ambient temperatures, but the failure did occur during cold weather. Not in a region subject to external impact or water hammer.
For some reason, when you actually need to look at it, whoever installed the pipe usually put the line of text against the wall.
The pictures show it being fitted to copper pipe. Check that it is suitable for use with grey plastic pipe before you try fitting it :-)
The instructions say yes to plastic pipe, but I wouldn't dare. I'll find the incoming main and fit it on that.
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