A Learning experience

[J. Clarke]

I'd be more concerned about a pipe busting than the toilet overflowing for no apparent reason. Now if there's a cat present who knows how to flush . . .

[Clare Snyder]

When leaving foran extended time I shut off the main water supply and open the highest tap in the house a crack so pressure does not build up from the water heater.

[Unquestionably Confused]

Doesn't your water heater have a pressure/temperature relief valve?

[krw]

And you're wearing the outlet and plug. Loose connections are a primary failure mode. The only time I unplug either is when I'm doing some serious cleaning around them. Off, sure. Unplugged, never.

Again, to you unplug your toaster? It has a heating element.

Silly idea. The most failure prone components in the water supply are the valves. Not sure what being a retired electrical engineer has to do with it though.

[DerbyDad03]

It's not about the toilet overflowing. It's about the toilet tank cracking, the innards failing, the fill hose connection to the tank letting go.

Anything that might cause the fill water to run continuously.

A young couple bought the house across the road from mine. They were living with their parents while some renovations were being done. New kitchen, new hardwood floors, totally upgraded 2nd floor master bathroom.

[Clare Snyder]

yes, but they often only work once and they make a mess when they go off.

[Dave in SoTex]

Turning your water heater down [VACATION setting if it has one] when you're gone for an extended period of time can add years of life to it. For 15 years we've had a small house about 30 miles from San Antonio that had been in my wife's family, Texas whose natural gas water heater is now 35 years old. Perhaps not a valid example since it went virtually unused for half its life. The house sees but 30 days or so a year of use but I turn the thermostat to VACATION every time I close the house up.

Dave in SoTex

[Dave in SoTex]

Why would it make a mess if the valve's drain line is routed to /thru an exterior wall as it should be? Or thru the floor to a crawl space or basement emergency drain?

Dave in SoTex

[Dave in SoTex]

Only that it seems to be the way an engineer's thought processes work; you know, ä fix looking for a problem mentality."

Dave in SoTex

[Dave in SoTex]

Occasionally, one of the toilet flappers doesn't seat/seal for whatever reason and the water runs continuously till such time as the float valve in the [aerobic] septic system triggers the sprinkler spray heads to draw down the fluid volume in the septic tank. Hate to think of that happening while we were gone for two weeks.

Dave in SoTex

[krw]

Because when the valve fails it often sprays hot water several feet? Mine hit some plumbing, ran down it, and ruined a bunch of stuff being stored "under" it in the basement. The heater is in the garage and there is a pan under it with a drain to the outside. If everything had gone according to plan there wouldn't have been any mess at all.

[krw]

Well, I happen to be a not-retired (but will be if anyone pisses me off ;-) electrical engineer. I'd hope others would think for themselves and not an appeal to authority.

[J. Clarke]

Rich people problems.

[krw]

Septic systems?

[DerbyDad03]

Off on another tangent ;-)

Do you say that for valves in general and in a equal amounts for all types of valves or you referring more to multi-turn gate valves?

IMHO, I don't have any problem with repeated operation of my ball valves, either the little quarter turn ones for fixtures or the larger straight handled ones.

In fact, as soon as we get back to normal life, I'm going replace my main shut-off with a ball valve because I am very leery of using my

1950's multi-turn gate valve at this point. There is a some seepage around the packing nut and due to the age of the valve I am reluctant crank it down any further than I already have. That is not the valve/pipe that I want to damage.

[Markem]

The main in my home is a multi turn valve, as were the shut off for the laundry. I repacked the ones for the laundry when we moved in, worked for when the laundry valve were on, but not when you turned them off.

It was a project but I replaced the laundry ones last year. The main not yet as it still works and it would be a major PITA.

[whit3rd]

Replacing the main ought not be necessary. You can get very good packing materials nowadays (teflon and grafoil, much longer lasting than the old greased-string stuff) and repacking isn't much difficulty.

Ball valves, while nice, DO have failure modes, and gate valves can last just as long. Gate valves don't need dissimilar metals, so they might be the long-term winner.

[Markem]

Shutting off the water is the PITA, there is no buffalo box. I can solder pipes and valve but not with water flowing, same with repacking the valve. The main shutoff work it ain't broke so ....

[J. Clarke]

A pipe was leaking in my house a year or two after I bought it. The gave valve on my side of the meter of course broke. So did the one on the other side of the meter, so no way to turn the water off. I ordered a couple of ball valves from Grainger or McMaster or Valves R Us or somewhere of that nature (this was long before they were commonplace in residential plumbing), pulled the meter, while water rushed into the basement I replaced the gate valve with a ball valve (you can actually do that without much difficulty--an open ball valve presents little flow restriction) and closed the ball valve. Got about an inch of water to clear up. Then put meter back, put ball valve on other side of meter, and all has been well since. The water company has changed out the meter several times since and not commented, so I assume they're happy with my work.

[Markem]

Threaded no doubt can be done, but try soldering if you figure out a reliable way to do that you have a money maker.