On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 09:18:01 +0000, Grunff wrote:

sPoNiX wrote:
Doing mods to the central heating...

I notice my central heating has loads of gate valves (The ones with
the red handwheels) for isolating various parts of the circuit.

However, the 'fashion' these days seems to be to use service valves
(Ball valve with a screwdriver slot).

What are the pros and cons? Why should I use one over the other? (Both
are avaivalbe locally at the same price)

Personally I tend to favour the gate valve as the hole through it
looks bigger. Any other issues to be aware of?


Full bore ball valves are the ones to go for. These have a hole that is
the same size as the connected pipe bore, and a flow path that is
totally unimpeded. So in the open position, it's the same as having no
valve.

More expensive and not available from the sheds..

The gate valve is almost full bore but most "service" valves seem
considerably smaller.

Is there any advantage to using a service valve over a gate valve?

sponix