Thanks for the nice trick Robert!

I think this is the city valve... Well at least it's the first valve I
see that brings cold water into the house. Is there usually supposed
to be a "city valve" outside the house?

Best regards,
NeilSanner

On Feb 21, 5:03 pm, Robert Allison wrote:
neilsannerwrote:
Hi,

The old main valve of my house doesn't stop the water flow very
tightly when shut off. I need to install a new main valve. It's on
3/4" copper pipe. I'll install the new valve just over the old one.
The problem is that the old pipe is now more oval in shape than round
and I'm afraid that the joint will leak. I planned to use a
compression fitting, since the old valve, when closed, lets pass
enough water to prevent us using soldering.

Is there a way to get the pipe round again?

Best regards,
NeilSanner

If you can get the oval tubing into the compression fitting
socket, then the compression fitting will fix the ovality issue.
If you cannot get the tubing in, then try this; Take a
crescent wrench, not vise grips or pliers or channel locks, and
place it on the pipe where it is round. Tighten the crescent
until it is snug against the pipe. Now remove it and move it to
the end where your compression socket will be and place it on the
narrow part of the oval. Rotate it until it is over the wide
part of the oval and try to insert the tubing into the socket.
This has worked for me many times in the past.

In addition, if your shutoff valve will not stop the flow enough
to allow soldering, why don't you shut off the city valve and
then solder on your new valve?

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX