Really, really thank you or this video! I had the same problem as you. Went the plumbing store here in Houston and tried to buy a value replacement. They told me the values were inclusive to the back flow unit and not interchangeable, that I had to replace the entire back flow unit - $280. They handed me business cards for plumbers. I saw plumbers at my neighbor's home replacing his back flow value. He paid $450.00. I made an appointment with them to have my back flow value fixed. Thinking I could it myself, I I went to Ace Hardware to buy the back flow value and the clerk recommended I replace the part. Well, I came home and watched numerous videos on this, none very helpful until I saw your solution. I returned to Ace and bought the parts. Taking my time, It took me about one hour+ to repair the value. I sent about $65.00+. You saved me some cash. Thanks a million.
Thank you for this video. Planning out my spring irrigation. Couldn't stomach the $5k irrigation installation bids I was getting so I'm gonna learn my way through it! Super appreciate videos like this.
Thanks for this informative video. I’m in Reno and new to irrigation systems and this house but I’m learning. Last fall the company that cuts the grass charged $75 to winterize the system but when I turned it on today I discovered a crack in the ball valve similar to the one you found. As far as I’m concerned, the burden for repair should be on the company that did the winterization. Left them a message and will wait till I I hear back Monday. Not optimistic.
Thanks, going to the store to get materials for this right now. My ball valves broke as well. Going to wrap with heat trace, then insulate for the next winter freeze as well. I have an extra 12V battery and inverter to power the heat trace as well.
Great idea. You really only need one union preferably on the outlet side. Even in your case with it being so close to the wall of your house, with just one union disconnected you can unthread the brass outlet valve to give you enough room to rotate the rest of the backflow preventer.
Great video! With those unions in place, it seems that one could remove the backflow preventer entirely during the winter months when the system is not in use. Not sure if it's legal (I'm in Texas), but it sure would save a lot of headache knowing it won't end up frozen.
I’m just turning on my sprinklers for the summer ( it’s been raining almost every day) anyways I noticed that a constant drip that’s coming from one of the pipes.. I have to do this myself you think I should replace piece or put pipe tape/glue any feedback would be greatly appreciated
I would always recommend replacing a fitting rather than trying to patch it. It's quite easy to do. If you've never replaced pvc before there are a million videos that will show you what to do. The main thing is make sure you use primer first, then pvc cement on all surfaces. You've got this!
@@anythingmechanical3399 thank you for responding! The pipe or piece that is dripping has 600 WOG on it…I will definitely do my homework again thanks for the feedback have a blessed night
Hi, I really appreciate your video and thank you for answering my previous question. I just have another question and I hope you can help me with it. I believe i have the same PVC pipe as the one in your video. Do you know what type and size is your PVC pipe? Is it 4" Schedule 40 PVC pipe? Thank you so much.
I did something similar but added two more ball valves. One as a secondary stop in case the one by the city main fails and one after the second union. To keep any debris out on the line after the pvb cause I just remove my entire PVB from the system. When it starts to get warm, I reconnect it and keep moving. Haven’t had any issues in 4years doing it this way.
I wonder if you could just remove the whole thing in winter since it's somewhat portable now and bring it in the house so it doesn't freeze anymore. Would there be a problem with just those two pipes being left exposed to the cold?
Thank you for sharing this great idea and video. Will it be possible to cover up the unions with pipe insulation considering they are wider than the 1" PVC pipe?
Good question. What I did was use regular 1" foam insulation which covers everything but the collar in the middle of the union. The OD of the insulation I used was flush with the OD of the collar. This looked fine, and the collar itself is thick plastic, which is itself somewhat insulating. At this point I then wrapped everything again with a layer of spiral wrap insulation so that everything looked nice and uniform. spiral wrap - www.lowes.com/pd/Frost-King-15-ft-Foam-Pipe-Wrap-Insulation-for-Pipe/1069439?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-plb-_-ggl-_-LIA_PLB_171_Air-Circulation-_-1069439-_-local-_-0-_-0&ds_rl=1286981&gclid=CjwKCAiAl-6PBhBCEiwAc2GOVECjm2RMkinqSFfn2kPCOsHhvl8U63KE04Yk5-wi89EtRQXteXW1vBoCi5EQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Thank you! Really like the addition of the couplings for ease of access for maintenance! Now I am wondering why not just remove the entire assembly and cap the pipes at the couplings every winter so I never have to worry about another expensive repair of replacing the assembly??? Thoughts?
This has come up a few times in the comments. You definitely could. You either need to 1) shut off the water to the house, remove the assembly and cap the pipes or 2) put the shutoff valves on the other side of the couplers. Option 1 sounds like a pain to me, but is certainly possible. Option 2 still leaves the valves exposed to freezing, but would keep your vacuum breaker super-safe indoors.
Option 3) buy another union and make a “winter stub” that is just a short piece of pipe with a cap. Insulate the whole thing, and put the expensive piece away for the winter. Just wrap the downstream side.
@@anythingmechanical3399 would simply capping the pipes hold? Totally new to plumbing DIY so I'm not sure what the water pressure on those caps would be like. Our backup preventer just burst last week, I want to replace it myself instead of paying someone to do it. Really appreciate your video, it seems like a fairly easy project. (The Mrs is going to be so turned on), haha!
Yes, caps would hold the pressure just fine. That’s what they are designed for. Most caps are glue on, so you would have to cut them off to put your backflow assembly back on.
Is there a way to remove it without cutting the PVC pipes? I have a leak at the tread connection between the metal and PVC. I need to tighten it, but if I do it, it will loosen the other end.
I watched a couple of videos with these couplers and was all in to do this until I bought them at Home depot. I brought them home and realized that the couplers inner diameter was smaller than just using a pvc coupler. I was worried that would restrict water flow to the sprinklers so I just glued them on. Do you notice any less water flow?
If you watch the video again the union slips over the outside of the pvc pipe. It does have a small shoulder so that both sides of the pipe will meet in tue exact center, but the shoulder isn’t as thick as the pvc pipe. In short, no restriction, no loss of water flow
Not exactly. If you shutoff the valves and drain the backflow preventer, the backflow preventer will be safe. However, half of the lower valve is still filled with water and under pressure, and could freeze and break as mine did. Fortunately, if you put the unions in as I suggested, it’s really cheap and easy to unscrew it all and just replace the valve for a few bucks.
@@anythingmechanical3399 thank you. Is it okay to place the Union AFTER the elbow closer to the valve? so next time I don't have to worry about buying an elbow?
With the unions on this, in the future you could just disconnect the whole assembly and put it inside every winter... You're already disconnecting it from your water supply all winter, right?
@@anythingmechanical3399 your video is awesome and I really dig the creative solution. I thought about this after watching and thought better to do it your way since it was the ball valves that failed to begin with. If you put the valves before the unions and they fail, then it defeats the purpose of the unions altogether. I just replaced mine and did it pretty much like you (I'm in Houston too) and I was thinking about creating a cap during the winter and taking the whole assembly inside. But then you risk a busted pipe. No, after some deliberation, your way is the best.
Do you have link to the slip joint part? I also noticed you dont have a shut off valve. How are you supposed to take off the backflow valve with the ball valve without having a shut off valve?
Teflon tape on the valves, not on the unions. The threads on the unions are not sealing in the way plumbing threads normally are. The threads on the unions help compress the two halves of the union together against the o-ring which does the sealing.
Hi Matthew. You’ll have to turn off the water to the house. Usually the shutoff valve can be found in your yard near the street under a plastic cover. There will be a dial/meter in there that records how much water you’re using. The shutoff valve doesn’t have much of a handle and usually requires pliers to turn. Turn it 1/4 turn perpendicular to the pipe to shutoff the water
Just hook the outlet side of the BFP to the sprinkler side and the inlet side to the household supply. There aren't left/right BFPs, you just flip it around.
Then the test cocks aren’t accessible, though. Your setup has more room than usual it looks like, so you’re ok. Space is tight and the plumber I talked to said it has to face the right way, or they’ll have to do a bunch of extra plumbing work. I’m going to keep looking for something that will work. They used to make them L > R and now all are R < L. The plumbing industry is a mess with their conventions. These could easily be designed to work universally in more scenarios including limited space situations. And, yes they should use unions, too.
That's a good question, a lot of conflicting information and incompetency. Ppl say never push air through backflow preventer, yet many installers/contractors neglect to install a blowout Tee after the backflow preventer such is the case with my system which was "professionally" installed last year. Craftsmanship is dead the fall of mankind is near 😂
I live in TX, where we don't winterize, so this system doesn't have attachment points for that. However, I made this video (ua-cam.com/video/cxEbQWdP7qQ/v-deo.html )testing if unions are strong enough to survive winterization
It’s a good idea in theory, as I tried it years ago. But the issue is those unions can’t handle the pressure of the air compressor you should be using to blow out the lines. Mine blew apart during winterization. That’s why pros don’t do it this way.
Hey David. Thanks for the comment. I've had a few people ask about winterization. A couple things. First, I've never lived in an area where it gets cold enough to worry about underground pipes freezing, so I've never run compressed air through my sprinkler system. Second, it's generally ill advised to put compressed air through PVC (fluidairedynamics.com/blogs/articles/can-pvc-pipe-be-used-for-compressed-air), and even if this is a common procedure in your area I would do it at very low pressures and with an abundance of caution. Finally, unions are rated for the same system pressure as any other pvc component, so under normal operation they are no more likely to cause an issue than any other part of the system
@@anythingmechanical3399 everyone in southern Nj has pvc and gets blown out by tow behind compressors. I never had a single issue until I put two unions in.
I found it so hard to believe that unions represented a point of failure at a greater degree than other PVC parts that I finally just tested it myself here: ua-cam.com/video/cxEbQWdP7qQ/v-deo.html I concluded that if you're winterizing properly, the unions will work great
You learn something new every day. Thanks James. I didn't know that. All BPVs I've seen in the Houston area have been PVC/CPVC. Be that as it may, unions exist in copper and brass as well.
That's installed all backwards. First the unit is too close to the backside of the house. No room for maintenance. Also the tiny pressure values should not be facing the back of the house. Water will be smashing everywhere if and when you need to pressurize the system. Whoever the original plumbing contractor is that installed that Backflow preventer with that orientation in the first place needs to have his or her license revoked. Also all that cracking of the Ball Valve unit usually occurs when the whomever neglects to pay that annual $100 to have an irrigation contractor come out to winterize your system. I know this to be a fact because every time I have failed the winterize the system (Around October/November in the Northeast) Ive had to replace cracked parts on the BackFlow preventer the following spring at startup.
This is certainly nice and convenient for the homeowner but I'd be afraid someone might walk off with it now that it's so easy to remove... darn thieves!
Wellllllll technically your supposed to use manufactures parts to do any repairs and in, including the valves due to the device being an assembly but does anybody really follow that? No is it something that has to be mentioned? Yes can a backflow device fail due to this. Yes, in the test report anyway not physically but that just depends on how strict your area is. For instance, my area they’re heavily strict on this but also the reason why i’m leaving a comment is . why the plastic busted is due at the flexing of the bonnet cap the brass piece on top of the device with three screw holes due to freezing you can see the bonnet cap is more of a dome shape and not flat just trying to be informational and not here to start confrontation
Except it has every year for the past 5 years. But, yeah, it's not supposed to. That's why they build them this way in the first place. So when we do get a hard freeze it's a disaster
@@anythingmechanical3399 Thanks for the video. Yes - it froze in Houston at my friend's house while they were on vacation! I need to follow what you did to replace the PVC pipe on the inlet side upstream of the ball valve!
@@anythingmechanical3399 I live in Conroe and my outgoing ball valve on top cracked last winter despite draining and protecting it. I will try replacing just the valve but mine have the drain plugs on the ball valve. I have not been able to find them so I will just use a regular ball valve. Using the unions you could just remove the whole blow out valve in the winter after turning off the water put it away until the spring and never have to worry about it freezing again. Yeah nobody blows out the system on the Gulf Coast. The ground never freezes here.
Really, really thank you or this video! I had the same problem as you. Went the plumbing store here in Houston and tried to buy a value replacement. They told me the values were inclusive to the back flow unit and not interchangeable, that I had to replace the entire back flow unit - $280. They handed me business cards for plumbers.
I saw plumbers at my neighbor's home replacing his back flow value. He paid $450.00. I made an appointment with them to have my back flow value fixed. Thinking I could it myself, I I went to Ace Hardware to buy the back flow value and the clerk recommended I replace the part.
Well, I came home and watched numerous videos on this, none very helpful until I saw your solution. I returned to Ace and bought the parts. Taking my time, It took me about one hour+ to repair the value. I sent about $65.00+. You saved me some cash. Thanks a million.
Awesome! Glad to hear it.
thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for. It is so stupid the valve isnt done this way for the beginning.
Thank you for this video. Planning out my spring irrigation. Couldn't stomach the $5k irrigation installation bids I was getting so I'm gonna learn my way through it! Super appreciate videos like this.
Thanks for the comment Rachel! Best of luck with your project.
You actually have a very calming voice. You could be a talk show host, or audio book reader, maybe even an announcer somewhere?! Retirement gig!
thank you kindly
This was so simple and they wanted 350 dollars to replace mine. Thanks for a great video.
That's the kind of story I love to hear. Glad it helped!
Thanks for this informative video. I’m in Reno and new to irrigation systems and this house but I’m learning. Last fall the company that cuts the grass charged $75 to winterize the system but when I turned it on today I discovered a crack in the ball valve similar to the one you found. As far as I’m concerned, the burden for repair should be on the company that did the winterization. Left them a message and will wait till I I hear back Monday. Not optimistic.
Thanks, going to the store to get materials for this right now. My ball valves broke as well. Going to wrap with heat trace, then insulate for the next winter freeze as well. I have an extra 12V battery and inverter to power the heat trace as well.
Great idea. You really only need one union preferably on the outlet side. Even in your case with it being so close to the wall of your house, with just one union disconnected you can unthread the brass outlet valve to give you enough room to rotate the rest of the backflow preventer.
This is true. Still prefer two :)
Great video! With those unions in place, it seems that one could remove the backflow preventer entirely during the winter months when the system is not in use. Not sure if it's legal (I'm in Texas), but it sure would save a lot of headache knowing it won't end up frozen.
Nevermind. I just read a few more comments and realized someone else beat me to the question.
Thank you. This was very helpful.
Fantastic info. Thank you!!
I’m just turning on my sprinklers for the summer ( it’s been raining almost every day) anyways I noticed that a constant drip that’s coming from one of the pipes.. I have to do this myself you think I should replace piece or put pipe tape/glue any feedback would be greatly appreciated
I would always recommend replacing a fitting rather than trying to patch it. It's quite easy to do. If you've never replaced pvc before there are a million videos that will show you what to do. The main thing is make sure you use primer first, then pvc cement on all surfaces. You've got this!
@@anythingmechanical3399 thank you for responding! The pipe or piece that is dripping has 600 WOG on it…I will definitely do my homework again thanks for the feedback have a blessed night
Nice, mines cracked at the same place. Ima try those union pieces. Thank you for the upload.
Smart. This is how they should all be like.
I’m thinking of adding a drain valve on the lower portion of the assembly.
Would it be easier to cut pipes at the same heights, then your reassembly just has to be even where they meet the union connections?
Not easier, but definitely better looking, haha
Hi, I really appreciate your video and thank you for answering my previous question. I just have another question and I hope you can help me with it. I believe i have the same PVC pipe as the one in your video. Do you know what type and size is your PVC pipe? Is it 4" Schedule 40 PVC pipe? Thank you so much.
I did something similar but added two more ball valves. One as a secondary stop in case the one by the city main fails and one after the second union. To keep any debris out on the line after the pvb cause I just remove my entire PVB from the system. When it starts to get warm, I reconnect it and keep moving. Haven’t had any issues in 4years doing it this way.
Is it possible you an send a picture of your set up? I am thinking same implementation .
@@ronykuruvilla8454certainly how can I send the picture?
I wonder if you could just remove the whole thing in winter since it's somewhat portable now and bring it in the house so it doesn't freeze anymore. Would there be a problem with just those two pipes being left exposed to the cold?
Thank you for sharing this great idea and video. Will it be possible to cover up the unions with pipe insulation considering they are wider than the 1" PVC pipe?
Good question. What I did was use regular 1" foam insulation which covers everything but the collar in the middle of the union. The OD of the insulation I used was flush with the OD of the collar. This looked fine, and the collar itself is thick plastic, which is itself somewhat insulating. At this point I then wrapped everything again with a layer of spiral wrap insulation so that everything looked nice and uniform.
spiral wrap - www.lowes.com/pd/Frost-King-15-ft-Foam-Pipe-Wrap-Insulation-for-Pipe/1069439?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-plb-_-ggl-_-LIA_PLB_171_Air-Circulation-_-1069439-_-local-_-0-_-0&ds_rl=1286981&gclid=CjwKCAiAl-6PBhBCEiwAc2GOVECjm2RMkinqSFfn2kPCOsHhvl8U63KE04Yk5-wi89EtRQXteXW1vBoCi5EQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
@@anythingmechanical3399 Thank you for sharing that, I'll look to do the same.
Thank you! Really like the addition of the couplings for ease of access for maintenance! Now I am wondering why not just remove the entire assembly and cap the pipes at the couplings every winter so I never have to worry about another expensive repair of replacing the assembly??? Thoughts?
This has come up a few times in the comments. You definitely could. You either need to 1) shut off the water to the house, remove the assembly and cap the pipes or 2) put the shutoff valves on the other side of the couplers. Option 1 sounds like a pain to me, but is certainly possible. Option 2 still leaves the valves exposed to freezing, but would keep your vacuum breaker super-safe indoors.
Option 3) buy another union and make a “winter stub” that is just a short piece of pipe with a cap. Insulate the whole thing, and put the expensive piece away for the winter. Just wrap the downstream side.
@@anythingmechanical3399 would simply capping the pipes hold? Totally new to plumbing DIY so I'm not sure what the water pressure on those caps would be like. Our backup preventer just burst last week, I want to replace it myself instead of paying someone to do it. Really appreciate your video, it seems like a fairly easy project. (The Mrs is going to be so turned on), haha!
Yes, caps would hold the pressure just fine. That’s what they are designed for. Most caps are glue on, so you would have to cut them off to put your backflow assembly back on.
Is there a way to remove it without cutting the PVC pipes? I have a leak at the tread connection between the metal and PVC. I need to tighten it, but if I do it, it will loosen the other end.
No, you have to cut the pipes unless you have an arrangement like the one I made in this video
Thanks for the video, Will this hold up on sprinkler winterization with compressor blow out?
Unions are intended as a permanent fixture and are rated for the same pressures as other fittings. So, yes.
@@anythingmechanical3399 Thank you so much!
In case you're interested. I just made this video to test if unions will hold up to winterization ua-cam.com/video/cxEbQWdP7qQ/v-deo.html
I watched a couple of videos with these couplers and was all in to do this until I bought them at Home depot. I brought them home and realized that the couplers inner diameter was smaller than just using a pvc coupler. I was worried that would restrict water flow to the sprinklers so I just glued them on. Do you notice any less water flow?
If you watch the video again the union slips over the outside of the pvc pipe. It does have a small shoulder so that both sides of the pipe will meet in tue exact center, but the shoulder isn’t as thick as the pvc pipe. In short, no restriction, no loss of water flow
Man. Thanks fir the video i think the sprinkler guy doesn't put a union so it forces you to call him. You just save me a 100 bucks
Are you saying even if you release all the pressure for the winter. it'll still freeze and crack at the bottom?
Not exactly. If you shutoff the valves and drain the backflow preventer, the backflow preventer will be safe. However, half of the lower valve is still filled with water and under pressure, and could freeze and break as mine did. Fortunately, if you put the unions in as I suggested, it’s really cheap and easy to unscrew it all and just replace the valve for a few bucks.
@@anythingmechanical3399 thank you. Is it okay to place the Union AFTER the elbow closer to the valve? so next time I don't have to worry about buying an elbow?
With the unions on this, in the future you could just disconnect the whole assembly and put it inside every winter... You're already disconnecting it from your water supply all winter, right?
Yes you could, but you would have to put the shutoff valves on the other side of the unions. Not a bad idea
@@anythingmechanical3399 your video is awesome and I really dig the creative solution. I thought about this after watching and thought better to do it your way since it was the ball valves that failed to begin with. If you put the valves before the unions and they fail, then it defeats the purpose of the unions altogether. I just replaced mine and did it pretty much like you (I'm in Houston too) and I was thinking about creating a cap during the winter and taking the whole assembly inside. But then you risk a busted pipe. No, after some deliberation, your way is the best.
What size are the unions and elbows?
all 1"
Do you have link to the slip joint part? I also noticed you dont have a shut off valve. How are you supposed to take off the backflow valve with the ball valve without having a shut off valve?
All these parts can be purchased at any hardware store. For the shutoff valve, I had to shut off water to the whole house to make this repair.
For the unions… which way or side should the O RING be installed?
they can go on either way, but I would set it up like I did in the video with the threaded collar on top
Teflon tape on the valves, not on the unions. The threads on the unions are not sealing in the way plumbing threads normally are. The threads on the unions help compress the two halves of the union together against the o-ring which does the sealing.
Hello, how do you turn the water off before working on this? Please let me know. Thanks.
Hi Matthew. You’ll have to turn off the water to the house. Usually the shutoff valve can be found in your yard near the street under a plastic cover. There will be a dial/meter in there that records how much water you’re using. The shutoff valve doesn’t have much of a handle and usually requires pliers to turn. Turn it 1/4 turn perpendicular to the pipe to shutoff the water
I need to have mine replaced. Mine flows from left to right, not right to left. I can't find any that flow left to right, any tips?
Just hook the outlet side of the BFP to the sprinkler side and the inlet side to the household supply. There aren't left/right BFPs, you just flip it around.
Then the test cocks aren’t accessible, though. Your setup has more room than usual it looks like, so you’re ok. Space is tight and the plumber I talked to said it has to face the right way, or they’ll have to do a bunch of extra plumbing work. I’m going to keep looking for something that will work. They used to make them L > R and now all are R < L. The plumbing industry is a mess with their conventions. These could easily be designed to work universally in more scenarios including limited space situations. And, yes they should use unions, too.
How did you winterize it
That's a good question, a lot of conflicting information and incompetency. Ppl say never push air through backflow preventer, yet many installers/contractors neglect to install a blowout Tee after the backflow preventer such is the case with my system which was "professionally" installed last year. Craftsmanship is dead the fall of mankind is near 😂
I live in TX, where we don't winterize, so this system doesn't have attachment points for that. However, I made this video (ua-cam.com/video/cxEbQWdP7qQ/v-deo.html )testing if unions are strong enough to survive winterization
It’s a good idea in theory, as I tried it years ago. But the issue is those unions can’t handle the pressure of the air compressor you should be using to blow out the lines. Mine blew apart during winterization. That’s why pros don’t do it this way.
Hey David. Thanks for the comment. I've had a few people ask about winterization. A couple things. First, I've never lived in an area where it gets cold enough to worry about underground pipes freezing, so I've never run compressed air through my sprinkler system. Second, it's generally ill advised to put compressed air through PVC (fluidairedynamics.com/blogs/articles/can-pvc-pipe-be-used-for-compressed-air), and even if this is a common procedure in your area I would do it at very low pressures and with an abundance of caution. Finally, unions are rated for the same system pressure as any other pvc component, so under normal operation they are no more likely to cause an issue than any other part of the system
@@anythingmechanical3399 everyone in southern Nj has pvc and gets blown out by tow behind compressors. I never had a single issue until I put two unions in.
I have had mine one for 4 years and never had 1 issue. I also remove mine for winter.
I found it so hard to believe that unions represented a point of failure at a greater degree than other PVC parts that I finally just tested it myself here: ua-cam.com/video/cxEbQWdP7qQ/v-deo.html I concluded that if you're winterizing properly, the unions will work great
Can I add PVC union onto a copper pipe?
Use copper unions
Most city codes for vacuume breakers call for copper pipe into VB, copper pipe out of VB . pipe to match VB size. Not pvc as seen in video.
You learn something new every day. Thanks James. I didn't know that. All BPVs I've seen in the Houston area have been PVC/CPVC. Be that as it may, unions exist in copper and brass as well.
Same I live in Houston and mine is all PVC.
Gonna try it with this coupler
That's installed all backwards. First the unit is too close to the backside of the house. No room for maintenance. Also the tiny pressure values should not be facing the back of the house. Water will be smashing everywhere if and when you need to pressurize the system. Whoever the original plumbing contractor is that installed that Backflow preventer with that orientation in the first place needs to have his or her license revoked. Also all that cracking of the Ball Valve unit usually occurs when the whomever neglects to pay that annual $100 to have an irrigation contractor come out to winterize your system. I know this to be a fact because every time I have failed the winterize the system (Around October/November in the Northeast) Ive had to replace cracked parts on the BackFlow preventer the following spring at startup.
This is certainly nice and convenient for the homeowner but I'd be afraid someone might walk off with it now that it's so easy to remove... darn thieves!
Wellllllll technically your supposed to use manufactures parts to do any repairs and in, including the valves due to the device being an assembly but does anybody really follow that? No is it something that has to be mentioned? Yes can a backflow device fail due to this. Yes, in the test report anyway not physically but that just depends on how strict your area is. For instance, my area they’re heavily strict on this but also the reason why i’m leaving a comment is . why the plastic busted is due at the flexing of the bonnet cap the brass piece on top of the device with three screw holes due to freezing you can see the bonnet cap is more of a dome shape and not flat just trying to be informational and not here to start confrontation
It doesn't freeze in Houston.......
Except it has every year for the past 5 years. But, yeah, it's not supposed to. That's why they build them this way in the first place. So when we do get a hard freeze it's a disaster
@@anythingmechanical3399 Thanks for the video. Yes - it froze in Houston at my friend's house while they were on vacation! I need to follow what you did to replace the PVC pipe on the inlet side upstream of the ball valve!
@@anythingmechanical3399 I live in Conroe and my outgoing ball valve on top cracked last winter despite draining and protecting it. I will try replacing just the valve but mine have the drain plugs on the ball valve. I have not been able to find them so I will just use a regular ball valve. Using the unions you could just remove the whole blow out valve in the winter after turning off the water put it away until the spring and never have to worry about it freezing again. Yeah nobody blows out the system on the Gulf Coast. The ground never freezes here.
The smart way is to bypass it.....straight pvc
Lol. Yes until the county show up to inspect your back flow preventer
The back flow preventer would probably fail a test
thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for. It is so stupid the valve isnt done this way for the beginning.