Plumbers - please decipher....

[Roy B]

Hi,

My 90 year old mother-in-law had water coming through the ceiling a couple of weeks ago - at 11:30pm! We live 150 miles away and had to organise a plu mber using Google :-( Cost us a fortune!

The plumber arrived a little after a neighbour had kindly turned off the ma in stop c*ck. I spoke to the plumber on the phone and he said that the mai n tank in the roof space was overflowing and that the "venturi" had broken. He ensured the mains was turned off and left some time after midnight. Lea ving mum with no water.

He returned the follow "broken ball valve on storage water tank replace auravis within the ball va lve"

I asked him if "auravis" was a typo but he said he wasn't sure if that was the correct spelling.

Does anyone have any idea what he is talking about?

Thanks, Roy

[Chris Hogg]

Orifice? Foreign, was he?

[Bod]

Orifice.

[JimK]

/Orifice? Foreign, was he? /q

Suspect he meant the ball valve seat (against which the rubber washer seals)

I bet his maths is even more interesting.... How much?

Jim K

[Roy B]

Foreign not, was he.

Orifice?

So he "replaced the orifice within the ball valve" hmmm...

So everything now is clear - not...

Any idea what the cost of a new "orifice" is?

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've seen one break when the pipe and brass ball-c*ck froze. The plastic orifice got forced further into the valve and bent sideways, and started letting water through when it thawed out, but fortunately only slowly. Was this shortly after a cold snap?

My parents had a ball-valve fail a few weeks before Christmas (worn out and clogged with hard water scale), and I rushed over to replace it. Next day, the new one failed at full flow :-( (I was going to take it back to Screwfix, but dad threw it away.) Fortunately, I had not turned the isolating valve fully on, and the overflow was just about handling it with the water up to 1/4" from the top of the tank.

Fitted yet another ball valve, but I also put a full-bore 1/4 turn lever valve in feed pipe downstairs, so they can now turn it off themselves if it goes wrong again - it's very easy to turn. (There's no way they could turn the main stop c*ck.)

[polygonum]

In my book, it is ludicrous not replacing the whole thing. BES prices are around £5 to £20:

[Tim+]

Worth getting someone in to fit an adequate overflow. A broken ball valve shouldn't lead to flooding.

Tim

[Bob Minchin]

Almost certainly would have needed to change the complete valve. Standard portsmouth patterm float valve between £4 and £8 at screwfix or toolsatan Hard to think of why it would take more than 30 mins to fit. plus the callout. He ought to have had one on the van and could have done it on the first call.

[Chris Hogg]

£1.99 on Ebay

[Roy B]

Polygonum - I totally agree. And yes - a lever valve will be fitted above t he mains stop c*ck in the next week or so - and an extra overflow pipe! And probably a complete new ball valve.

Andrew G - I still don't understand what he replaced. He told me that he di dn't replace the ball valve, just the "auravis" - and that was with a secon d hand one - so no charge for that! (That was actually on the receipt)!

JimK - How much... Well - It was nearly midnight, and we were 150 miles awa y - so it's never going to be cheap. It cost £70 for the on-line clearing house that found a local 24hr plumber. The plumber charged £145 for call out and return visit the next evening.

So a total of £215.... That's not what I'm concerned about - yes bloody e xpensive but as I said - it's not going to be cheap at midnight.

What I'm a little ticked at is two things...

1. Not really understanding exactly what he replaced. It just feels like I' m having the wool pulled over my eyes. I do my own diy plumbing and I reall y don't understand what he is talking about. Hence my post to uk.d-i-y. I r eally want to give him the benefit of the doubt - not easy dealing with a c ustomer 150 miles away - but I just want a reality check!

1. Why he left a 90 year old with no water for the day! He could have at le ast isolated the mains to the tank and left the house with mains water. At least she would have been able to flush the toilet! And surely any 24hr plu mber is going to have a spare ball valve on the van aren't they - or am I b eing unfair?

Thoughts?

Roy

[polygonum]

Agreed.

[Mike Barnes]

£15.99 NSFW

[charles]

In our last house the overflow was adequate - unfortunately the plumber had used a seamed pipe and the seam had split where he bent it.

[Roy B]

I hope I'm wrong - but I'm thinking that this plumber is one of those... :- )

Probably a bit unfair - but I couldn't resist it :-)

[charles]

I think orofice might be correct. But the sizeneeded might be non standard.

as for 2. Has the tank an isolating valve? many don't, just relying on the main stopcock. Doesn't the toilet cistern fill from the tank, anyway? so the only problem would have been drinking water - and she could always have boiled tank water to make it drinkable.

But how old is the installation? The pipe to the tank might have been iron, needing a threaded ball valve rather than compression, or at least a coupler not in common use.

[polygonum]

Our upstairs WC fills from the tank; downstairs from mains. Deliberately so - we can flush one of them whichever source is affected. For a while.

If I were going to have to leave a 90 year old without water, it would be my duty to ensure at least bottled water was available. But I doubt that it was really necessary to leave her without.

[Roy B]

Thank's for your considered thoughts - as I said I need a reality check. Easy to pick holes from 150 miles!

The house (bungalow) is not that old - I'm pretty sure is all copper. I know it is copper in the airing cupboard. House has air blown CH. New plumber will tell me in the next week or so.

Toilets are on mains so did not work. Hmm - why didn't she have anything on hot water side? There was nothing coming out of the taps... hmmm.

Oh, perhaps it was because when they turned off the mains they turned on the bath taps etc to drain the tank.

I still don't understand how you can replace an "orofice". Is this some technical plumbing term that I don't understand?

Thanks for your help, Roy

[Roy B]

A bit more information.... In an email describing the "auravis"...

"it is a pressure reducing valve that gets cut off by the diaphragm built within the ball valve. it had cracked on the original one so needed replacing."

does that help... confuses the hell out of me - but then I'm not a plumber...

Thoughts?

[JimK]

/"it is a pressure reducing valve that gets cut off by the diaphragm built within the ball valve. it had cracked on the original one so needed replacing."

does that help... confuses the hell out of me - but then I'm not a plumber...

Thoughts? /

My guess = Google pics "ball valve seat"

Jim K