Stopcock seized up? Cannot turn off the water.
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- Опубліковано 28 лис 2024
- #Stopcocks/Stoptaps# that do not work. Here is how to get them going again.
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twice a year we change the clocks. it is a good time to get a routine going at an easy to remember time. turn all the stoptaps, ISO valves etc, press the test buttons on the RCDs, press the test button on the smoke detectors. get everything on the list and it makes everything run much better for when you really need it.
Great advice Shadow. Thanks.
That what I tell my customers….they seldom do!
I had this exact problem of a seized stopcock several years ago. My plumber replaced it with a quarter turn lever arm isolation valve. Just brilliant, no need to open the tap fully and close it down by a thread, and there is no need for periodic closing and opening. With a stainless steel arm, there is no possibility of brass shearing off.
They are the best.
@dereton33 So why not advocate swapping the stopcock for the valve? 🤔🙄😖
Lever valves are not water regs approved needs to be a stop tap sorry to say
@russellsmith6476 So why are they manufactured and readily available? And well, I can't see anyone coming to check, and certify, it in the immediate or distant future! 😂
@AndrewLumsden depends on your water company
Water regs did state it needs to be a stop tap after the stop tap you can use a lever valve up stream. i use lever valves on heating ,gas approved, hot and cold all the time
A good few yrs back now I was moving out of my flat, and the washing machine stop valve was broke. (I found this out on my last day.)
Plumber came & the stop cock was jammed, with blue plastic pipe from the ground to 4”where it went to copper pipe for 3” then straight into the stopcock. (From a 70s build… surprised the heck outta me And the plumber.)
Plumber’s freeze kit was knackered.
Took an hour to mop the kitchen after sealing that washing machine tap lol.
Isn't plumbing great ha ha.
Got the problem low and behold you upload a video it’s not the first time unbelievable and thanks
No problem mate.
I always used to fit a lever valve, either instead or in addition to the stopcock. Much easier for elderly persons to opperate.
The waterboard weren't keen on them, but what the heck. The older stopcocks used to have a loose jumper to make them
non return, but they stopped making them years ago.
Thanks for the info.
Great advice, though for quite a few of us, the tap in the road seized up years ago and the water companies don’t want to know. Grr…
Anyway, options are more limited in this scenario!!
Yes that is true.
I was under the impression that the main stopcock outside the property (ours is in the pavement) was both the property and responsibility of the water company, only the pipes inside of the boundary are the responsibility of the house holder. If they 'don't want to know' despite having the fault reported to them and there is an emergency leak in the home, they would be responsible for paying for the damage! I can remember our old tap out there, it was replaced by the water meter quite some time ago now, we now have a very stiff to turn plastic handle on the meter protected by a thick foam plug to prevent frost damage (I think its designed to be stiff mind, too loose and every damned anti social kid would have the time of their life!)
@@plymouth5714I believe you are correct.
I could not move ours, the Water Co guy came and released it…using for more force than I would have dared.
Thanks for the tips. Got mine working a treat!
You're welcome!
Lever valves are the way to go, ( British Standard ).
They are good.
Great tip! Thanks for sharing 👍👍
No problem 👍
The trick to a seized main tap is to NOT let it happen ! .... turn your ( nice new ) tap fully on ..then .. turn it back ½ a turn , this will not impede the water flow and it will not get jammed fully " on " years later ( tried - n - tested ) .... DAVE™🛑
A real old tip that one. The problem is if you live in the house where you have your nice new stopcock fitted and do as you say, which is the thing to do. Then all ok, but if you move into an old house where that has never been done then you are stuck.
Have tried vinegar/acid trick without result, I put grease or copperslip on all threads to make
unscrewing and open/close easier next time.
Great advice thanks.
Gate valves are another pain they have a tendency to break inside and the handle just spins so you either have a valve that’s open and you can’t close it or even worse they are closed so after you have done whatever needed doing you can’t get the water back on so have to replace it.
They are the very worst 😔
Our stopcock has gone a funny colour think it’s rusty? Can’t turn the stopcock off? Any advice pls whilst we wait for our plumber.. No one’s available for 2 days they are so busy!
I would just leave it alone, not touching it is best if you are having a new one fitted.
Our plumber fitted the red valve type turn-wheels inside our home so that we could turn our outdoor taps off in the Winter. We have had the front red valve replaced three times now by two different plumbers. - For a third time, it just keeps turning and won't work to turn the water off. The front one has now done the same. Had three different plumbers replace them. We are very careful and delicate with these red valves, so we don't know why they continue to fail? Are these red valves just rubbish, or are the little black switches better? Could water pressure being too high continue to break them? Thanks. Love from Scotland, ❤ X ...
They should not be fitting gate valves on mains pressure. The best valves are full bore quarter turn valves, avoid the small black isolation valves they are rubbish. Love from Dawlish in England.
I had this problem but was hesitant to use force in case it sheared off. What I did was get a freezing kit that froze the water in the pipe and fit an isolator. You must have all the parts and tools ready to do the job though. As it happened there was plenty of time to spare before the water in the pipe thawed out.
They are great if you have the room to fit them on.
If possible remove the gland nut and apply limescale remover perhaps?
Worth a go.
A proper plumber exactly as I would have done before I retired , you could try a bit of WD40 in the packing gland .
I did have that on the original video about WD 40 in the packing gland but was told by some engineer that it was the worse thing you can do. Something about rotting the gland washer and contaminating the water supply, stuff like that. So I cut it out.
Hi Dereton, we had a stopcock with a very stuck tap handle, and when turning it to open the valve, it snapped in two. The stopcock is down a 5" wide x 1 foot deep recess in our garage floor, so its really hard to access. Any ideas what we can use to turn the shaft ? Its not a square shaped shaft which took the tap handle, so we can't use a socket etc, its rectangular with round ends ??? Also do you know if different sized stopcocks have different sized shafts or are they standard please, as we have been looking at getting a bigger stopcock and using that bigger tap handle if that meets a bigger shaft ie the one down the recess, Or .....do you have other ideas on dealing with this please ? Many thanks in advance :-)
The shaft sizes are all the same. I would get a new stopcock and split it in half then undo the broken top of the old tap with any luck it may well fit the thread.
@@dereton33 HI Dereton, we did get a new stopcock, but the tap handle from that one doesn't fit the shaft of the stopcock down the recess, hence thinking there are different sizes ??? Also, now not having the tap handle that fitted the shaft, we are really stuck as how to open the broken top of the old shaft as you suggest, down the recess, as it is really stiff, which was why tap handle broke in the first place, any further ideas would be really welcome please xx
Had this issue, went to turn water off at pavement lifted the access lid, cleared a load of muck to find another access lid below this more mud and water stopcock was arms length below pavment which must have been lifted ar some point.
You can buy a long tool for turning a stopcock that is down a deep hole, like the one in the pavement.
A stopcock Key.
It is meant to be that deep to protect from freezing. Water pipes if not deep enough under ground will freeze in a long hard winter.
Hope mine never seizes solid, as it has soldered or sweated joints top & bottom, with a lead feed pipe!
Fingers crossed!
Yes mine has a lead feed pipe, I'm too scared to twist hard - I'm sure it'll bend the pipe! Luckily the one out on the road is easy to get to.
I've moved into the house with a similar issue. Nothing I can do about it and the location would mean to get proper access would me destroying a decent chunk of the kitchen cupboard. So I made my own outside stop tap key and if I need to turn water off to that area I have to do it outside, in other areas of the house I have put full bore peglar lever valves so I can turn water off easily to other areas of the house....nothing else I can do for now
@@piedthepiper - Peglar valves are a good idea (if you can hide them away in a cupboard)! In a similar vein, I've gradually added isolation valves as & when I've had to change taps or ball valves.
Excellent,thank you.
Thank you too!
Some good tips but, using the steel tools you show directly on the relatively soft brass shaft will likely leave burrs and damage the sealing gland or cause it to catch in the gland nut, defeating the object of the exercise.
Sorry I don`t have rubber tools. Never had a problem after 55 years. If you have never come across a sized stopcock you will see that nothing but steel tools will shift it. I would like tom see Your way of freeing a sized stopcock those rubber tools should do it ha ha.
I stopped wasting my time finding them in the customers house and the responsibility of fixing the packing gland so I just turn the meter off it there is one. The water company is liable for it also.
Thanks.
I didn't know that stopcocks had that lovely acute pitch. 💧🎶🐦
Ok, That`s enough everyone, I have corrected it now. English never was my strongpoint.
Classic
Thanks.
Why don't we all fit the ones that the water companies use out in the street?
They NEVER seize up.
Because they are generally plastic ones, which joe average over tighten and snap off😂😂
They do not have non return valves in them.
Left long enough they do seize up, it did on my parents house and the water company had to replace it (which they did with a water meter!).
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thanks.
Very puzzling:
Sized up:
to examine something or someone carefully and decide what you think about it, him, or her: Voters are still sizing up the candidates. The two cats walked in circles around each other, sizing each other up.
seized up
seized up; seizing up; seizes up. : to stop working because the moving parts can no longer move. The engine/brakes suddenly seized up. sometimes used figuratively. Her brain seized up when she tried to answer the question.
As an English learner I highly appreciate your comment 💙
Ok you have had your fun it is all sorted now.
@@dereton33 well done.