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Posted by jay-n-123 on April 5, 2007, 9:45 pm
My 20 year old townhouse has a total of 17 Brasscraft shutoff valves. These
are the multi-turn style (NOT ball) and are the ones with metal stems (NOT
plastic). I believe they were all soldered on.
When I first moved here 2.5 years ago, most of these valves were siezed but
I was able to use a pair of pliers to get them unsiezed so they could then
be turned by hand.
Every two months I've been turning them as slightly as possible to prevent
them from being siezed again, and then turning them back slightly to the
original position. I'm not giving them a full workout as I want to avoid
deteriorating existing packing. Question is to continue with this strategy
or just leave them be?
Someone, who is not a plumber, but an experienced homeowner, suggested that
I should simply leave them alone and not touch them unless I really need to
shut something off, since turning them at all may be deteriorating the
packing and cause a leak and then the valve might need replacing. He said,
unless you are prepared to be spending a lot of money getting the valves
replaced, then just leave the shutoff valves alone.
Should I continue to turn them slightly every two months and hope that none
of develop a leak a result of my turning them, or just leave them alone?
Thanks,
J.
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Posted by Nate Nagel on April 5, 2007, 9:51 pm
jay-n-123 wrote:
> My 20 year old townhouse has a total of 17 Brasscraft shutoff valves. These
> are the multi-turn style (NOT ball) and are the ones with metal stems (NOT
> plastic). I believe they were all soldered on.
>
> When I first moved here 2.5 years ago, most of these valves were siezed but
> I was able to use a pair of pliers to get them unsiezed so they could then
> be turned by hand.
>
> Every two months I've been turning them as slightly as possible to prevent
> them from being siezed again, and then turning them back slightly to the
> original position. I'm not giving them a full workout as I want to avoid
> deteriorating existing packing. Question is to continue with this strategy
> or just leave them be?
>
> Someone, who is not a plumber, but an experienced homeowner, suggested that
> I should simply leave them alone and not touch them unless I really need to
> shut something off, since turning them at all may be deteriorating the
> packing and cause a leak and then the valve might need replacing. He said,
> unless you are prepared to be spending a lot of money getting the valves
> replaced, then just leave the shutoff valves alone.
>
> Should I continue to turn them slightly every two months and hope that none
> of develop a leak a result of my turning them, or just leave them alone?
>
> Thanks,
>
> J.
>
>
I'd keep exercising them, and can't they be repacked if they do start to
leak? Generally a valve will not leak when fully open, only when
partially open. I have a spigot on the outside of my house that leaks
like a seive while opening, but when it's full open there's enough
packing left that there's not a drip. (yeah, I know, but I have other
things to fix before I get to that.)
nate
--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel
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Posted by dpb on April 5, 2007, 10:16 pm
> My 20 year old townhouse has a total of 17 Brasscraft shutoff valves. These
> are the multi-turn style (NOT ball) and are the ones with metal stems (NOT
> plastic). I believe they were all soldered on.
>
> When I first moved here 2.5 years ago, most of these valves were siezed but
> I was able to use a pair of pliers to get them unsiezed so they could then
> be turned by hand.
>
> Every two months I've been turning them as slightly as possible to prevent
> them from being siezed again, and then turning them back slightly to the
> original position. I'm not giving them a full workout as I want to avoid
> deteriorating existing packing. Question is to continue with this strategy
> or just leave them be?
>
> Someone, who is not a plumber, but an experienced homeowner, suggested that
> I should simply leave them alone and not touch them unless I really need to
> shut something off, since turning them at all may be deteriorating the
> packing and cause a leak and then the valve might need replacing. He said,
> unless you are prepared to be spending a lot of money getting the valves
> replaced, then just leave the shutoff valves alone.
>
> Should I continue to turn them slightly every two months and hope that none
> of develop a leak a result of my turning them, or just leave them alone?
>
I'd break them loose and close them fully once and then exercise them
no more frequently than six months, more like yearly. If the stems
are "limed up", a plastic bag of vinegar tied around the handle will
dissolve most of it and they'll be near new.
If you don't break them loose until an emergency arises, the chances
are much higher that when you really need it is when you'll discover
it doesn't hold at all or you can't get it broken loose before you've
just flooded the bathroom or living room from the kitchen, or
whatever...
OTOH, once every two months and a partial twist isn't putting enough
wear on a packing to be noticeable in your lifetime unless the stems
are extremely rough and therefore tearing it or they're already so
brittle from age as to be ready to go anyway.
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Posted by mm on April 5, 2007, 10:57 pm
wrote:
>
>Someone, who is not a plumber, but an experienced homeowner, suggested that
>I should simply leave them alone and not touch them unless I really need to
I would say, not bother to touch them. There is no reason not to turn
them off for the slightest reason, but there is IMO no reason to play
with them just for fun.
I found that the toilet I use most makes me happy when I turn the
valve almost off, so that I don't hear it when it refills. I've
adjusted that valve a few times and don't need more than my hand to
turn it, although 10 times in 28 years might not be the reason it
works so easily.
Like someone else said, valves are best when they are all the way on
or all the way off, so I checked to make sure this one wasn't leaking
when it was slightly on. It wasn't. 28 years is practically new
afaic.
>shut something off, since turning them at all may be deteriorating the
>packing and cause a leak and then the valve might need replacing. He said,
>unless you are prepared to be spending a lot of money getting the valves
>replaced, then just leave the shutoff valves alone.
>
>Should I continue to turn them slightly every two months and hope that none
>of develop a leak a result of my turning them, or just leave them alone?
I have a general laissez-faire attitude, and I'm no pro, but what I've
been doing with my 28 y.o. townhouse and multi-turn valves is just
ignoring them. This week, after the water heater sprang some sort of
leak, I could not turn the valve off with my bare hands, so I got a
long Channel-Lock pliers and used that. Though I could only use 1
hand, and it was a bit hard to get the pliers in place with only one
hand, once I did, it was easy to turn the handle with the pliers.
That's what pliers are for, to make hard things to turn into easy
things to turn.
I've lived here almost since the house was new, adn the only time the
valve has been turned was the last time the WH leaked, maybe 12 years
ago.
I don't see how the space around the stem can lime up since it has
iiuc no water in it, and if there were water it would take a long long
time to evaporate.
The handles on my valves are the lightweight ones, cast metal, with
maybe 6 "spokes" and curly metal around the edge, that has the overall
shape of a 6-leaf clover. That is, they're not solid metal.
OTOH, the valve handels for my toilets are solid and shaped like
footballs with serated edges, and recently I had to put vice grips on
one to close it. The vice-grips came up from the handle, and
therefore didn't give a lot of added leverage, but they were easier to
get a hold of and had no rough edges, so it was almost easy to turn
off the water. This valve too has only been closed one other time in
the last 28 years, when I replaced the ballcock with the easy to
replace Flo-Master? bayonet mount ballcock.
OTOH, although I don't think it is worth the effort to keep turning
handles, I don't think the turning you are doing is going to damage
the packing in your lifetime, or your children's.
My bathroom sink faucets get turned several times a day every day, and
they don't leak around the stem after 28 years. In other places, I've
had faucets much older that (53 years), that don't leak around the
stem.
>
>Thanks,
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Posted by Roger Shoaf on April 6, 2007, 4:31 am
I could not turn the valve off with my bare hands, so I got a
> long Channel-Lock pliers and used that. Though I could only use 1
> hand, and it was a bit hard to get the pliers in place with only one
> hand, once I did, it was easy to turn the handle with the pliers.
> That's what pliers are for, to make hard things to turn into easy
> things to turn.
Ughhh, Snap. #@%&@#
--
Roger Shoaf
About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.
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