Is it me, or do service valves always weep a bit?
I do a lot of change taps/change sink jobs and always seem to find the service valves (if fitted at all) weep and I end up working with wet arms!
Got to the point where I've just made up a couple of 2" lengths of copper pipe with stop ends & compression nuts & olives so I can blank off the service valves.
I wouldn't rate the usual cheap ones any better than gate valves. They often leak, and sometimes the shaft snaps off. What is the best solution? Full bore valves, or comventional stop taps?
Cheap ones do - especially in hard water areas.
I have similar stubs for fitting to radiator tails for much the same reason!
Are these not supposed to have a correct orientation? Maybe the leaky ones are the wrong way round. The one under my sink is.
As to useful connectors I made a length of hose up with 3/4 BSP connections so that when I remove radiators I can bypass the leaking rad valve without having to drain the system
Adam
The hose idea is one I have used - I also use it to flush the system - usually by screwing it into one of the top blanking plugs (yes - old radiators) and opening another to drain the system.
Sorry to be a bit dim, but can you explain how that works?
Sometimes when I remove a radiator one of the valves still leaks even when turned off (and in the case of TRVs with no locking cap I worry about the temperature dropping and the valve opening). It is just a hose with 3/4 BSP connectors (and two 1/2 BSP adaptors if needed) that fits between the two rad valves. I really should have used blanks but did not have any at the time so made the hose up instead. This hose also serves the dual purpose of allowing me to drain the system later and replace the dodgy valve.
Adam
On 15 Apr 2007 09:57:27 GMT, Huge mused:
I was wondering that. My easier way of bypassing leaking rad valves that let by is to just blank them off.
Oh, I see. Sorry, I thought you meant you had some demon scheme for changing the valves without draining/freezing. We have had to have a series of TRVs changed over the last few years & I'm always looking for easier ways of doing them.
Swap them live, it takes some balls but I have done it. No guarantees about the mess but if the room is getting decorated!!!
Adam
A mate of mine wanted a new feed to a radiator. The easiest way to do it was from the tails of the rad in the adjacent room. So I said the simplest way is to have a service valve ready, chop the pipe with a pipe cutter and then shove your valve over the pipe. It was a vented system with only 20' head, so I told him he would not lose much water.
I was working on something else in the house when I heard the swearing. Went to investigate and found black gunk all over the floor, walls, and even ceiling! Seems he had a spot of bother. I said, I would do the next one. First clue was he commented on the fact that I had the service valve already assembled - with nut and olive in place! It seems he had cut the pipe, forgot to stick his thumb over the end and then set about placing the back nut on the pipe first, then the olive, then the valve. Then found he had left the spanner out of reach!
Did he let the central heating cool down first? If he did it was the only thing he got right. Swapping just a rad valve is not too bad as you resuse the olive and nut.
Adam
Yup it was cool. Needed to put a new service valve in place to allow a new tee'd section to be added in before the existing rad.
In message , The Medway Handyman writes
What's the difference between a service valve and an isolation valve?
On Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:56:48 +0100, Peter Twydell mused:
Pretty mUcH nothing. Most of it's just what you were brought up on.
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