I've been having this problem with the gate valves in my house. All the
plumbing is probably 40 years old and the rubber seats have worn out so they
won't seal. I've been slowly working my way around replacing them.
Replacements are cheap but like you I've found them to be dubious quality. Some
I can't get the assembly apart to solder them in place. My hardware store folks
told me to just leave them together which I have done and its been okay but I'm
never happy about it.
A Google search suggests made in USA valves might be available but at
tremendous cost...
-Curt
On Tuesday, October 8, 2019, 11:24:43 AM EDT, Randy Bennell via Mercedes
<mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:
You all know I live where it gets really cold in the dead of winter. We
have an outside faucet setup on the side of the house. It is a homemade
manifold that permits me to mix hot and cold water outside. Inside, I
have ball valves on each of the hot and cold feeder lines so that I can
turn the outside water off for the winter. I open the outside valves to
drain the water in the lines and all is well until spring. This has
worked fine for 20 years or more.
Now, the ball valves do not appear to be sealing well enough - or at
least one of them is not. The outside hose connection drips. I have
worked the inside valves back and forth a few times in the hope that it
will cause them to seal up but have had no success.
My guess, is that some bit of dirt or loose solder etc has gone through
and scratched the nylon socket insert so that there is an ability of the
water to seep past under pressure.
Anyone have any ideas on repair apart from cutting out the valves and
replacing them? It is getting difficult to find decent quality valves.
They all seem to be made in China now and it is difficult to tell if
they are good or junk.
If I do have to swap them out, I think I will go back to gate valves.
The lever action ball valves are quick to turn on and off but seem to
suffer from some other issues as well. I have installed them all over
the basement so that I can turn almost any fixture or part of the house
on or off without turning the whole house off (which is the way it
started out) and I find that the ball valves tend to sort of seize up.
One needs to work them periodically in order to make sure they can be
turned off if need be.
Randy
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