repacking a main valve
 

Hi all

am helping a friend remodel his downstairs bathroom, and as a result
have had to mess with the plumbing. Two valves in his laundry room were
dripping when I noticed them; one being the cold water shutoff for the
washing machine, and the other being the main shutoff for the house. I
tightened down the packing nuts on both and of course the one for the
washer is now fine, but the one for the main is still seeping.

I'm having a hard time visualizing, probably because I've been up late
every night this week either playing with power tools or huffing flux
fumes. On a typical older stop and waste valve, if I shut the valve off,
can I remove the packing nut and shove some more packing in there
without having the water shut off *prior* to that valve? Obviously that
is one valve that I'm not going to offer to replace for him because of
the possibility of Things Going Badly (I don't even know where the
street shutoff is...)

On the upside, my soldering skills have improved dramatically what with
all the practice. I (touch wood) didn't have a single leaky joint...

thanks

nate

--
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repacking a main valve
 

On Sep 10, 9:38*am, Nate Nagel wrote:
On a typical older stop and waste valve, if I shut the valve off,
can I remove the packing nut and shove some more packing in there
without having the water shut off *prior* to that valve?

lmgtfy! http://lmgtfy.com/?q=repack+water+valve
-----

- gpsman

repacking a main valve
 

Nate Nagel wrote:

I'm having a hard time visualizing, probably because I've been up late
every night this week either playing with power tools or huffing flux
fumes. On a typical older stop and waste valve, if I shut the valve
off, can I remove the packing nut and shove some more packing in there
without having the water shut off *prior* to that valve?

I think the answer is "yes", you can shut off the valve and loosen and
remove the packing nut to add valve stem packing. I just had to do that a
few weeks ago with an old toilet supply valve. I just shut it off without
turning off the water supply anywhere else, then loosened the valve stem
nut. In my case, even repacking the valve stem didn't work because it was
an old and corroded valve with a bent valve stem. So I had to replace the
valve after trying the repacking trick first.

The easy way for you to be sure is to turn off the valve and just loosen the
valve stem nut a little and see what happens.

repacking a main valve
 

I would just replace themain valve since its showing its age, replace
with ball valve!

repacking a main valve
 

bob haller wrote:
I would just replace themain valve since its showing its age, replace
with ball valve!
Hi,
Ditto. I lucked out when city crew showed up to upgrade our water meter
with WiFi remote reader. I bribed them to replace the main shut off with
ball valve I already had for the purpose. 2 six pack soda was the price.

repacking a main valve
 

On 9/10/2011 12:56 PM, Tony Hwang wrote:


bob haller wrote:
I would just replace themain valve since its showing its age, replace
with ball valve!
Hi,
Ditto. I lucked out when city crew showed up to upgrade our water meter
with WiFi remote reader. I bribed them to replace the main shut off with
ball valve I already had for the purpose. 2 six pack soda was the price.

Our water utility finally realized they were causing more problems by
pulling your pants down with large maintenance shutoff fees so now all
you need to do is call and inform them you need to do maintenance and
they will schedule a no charge truck roll.

repacking a main valve
 

On Sat, 10 Sep 2011 11:55:29 -0400, "RogerT"
wrote:

Nate Nagel wrote:

I'm having a hard time visualizing, probably because I've been up late
every night this week either playing with power tools or huffing flux
fumes. On a typical older stop and waste valve, if I shut the valve
off, can I remove the packing nut and shove some more packing in there
without having the water shut off *prior* to that valve?

I think the answer is "yes", you can shut off the valve and loosen and
remove the packing nut to add valve stem packing. I just had to do that a
few weeks ago with an old toilet supply valve. I just shut it off without
turning off the water supply anywhere else, then loosened the valve stem
nut. In my case, even repacking the valve stem didn't work because it was
an old and corroded valve with a bent valve stem. So I had to replace the
valve after trying the repacking trick first.


You can usually stop leaking past the stem by adding some packing.
The caveats are
1. Don't strip the packing nut.
2. The valve will become hard to crank because of packing pressure on
the stem.
That might clear up without leaking again and it might not.
I've had mixed results adding packing.
Better when I used square packing material closely matched to
stem-to-case diameter.

Original valve packing is designed to a diameter that fits almost
exactly between stem and valve body. It doesn't take much compression
to seal.
The right way to repack a valve is to remove all old packing and put
new right-sized packing back in.
I'm in the replace old valves camp, unless that's not practical.

--Vic

repacking a main valve
 

On 09/10/2011 12:43 PM, bob haller wrote:
I would just replace themain valve since its showing its age, replace
with ball valve!

As this isn't my house, I don't think that's on the table... it's in a
really inconvenient location, really only accessible by either reaching
through a wall that is going to be replaced hopefully within a week, or
else by removing the washer and dryer from the laundry room... and I
have no way of shutting off the incoming water

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

repacking a main valve
 

On 09/10/2011 02:00 PM, Vic Smith wrote:
On Sat, 10 Sep 2011 11:55:29 -0400,
wrote:

Nate Nagel wrote:

I'm having a hard time visualizing, probably because I've been up late
every night this week either playing with power tools or huffing flux
fumes. On a typical older stop and waste valve, if I shut the valve
off, can I remove the packing nut and shove some more packing in there
without having the water shut off *prior* to that valve?

I think the answer is "yes", you can shut off the valve and loosen and
remove the packing nut to add valve stem packing. I just had to do that a
few weeks ago with an old toilet supply valve. I just shut it off without
turning off the water supply anywhere else, then loosened the valve stem
nut. In my case, even repacking the valve stem didn't work because it was
an old and corroded valve with a bent valve stem. So I had to replace the
valve after trying the repacking trick first.


You can usually stop leaking past the stem by adding some packing.
The caveats are
1. Don't strip the packing nut.
2. The valve will become hard to crank because of packing pressure on
the stem.
That might clear up without leaking again and it might not.
I've had mixed results adding packing.
Better when I used square packing material closely matched to
stem-to-case diameter.

Original valve packing is designed to a diameter that fits almost
exactly between stem and valve body. It doesn't take much compression
to seal.
The right way to repack a valve is to remove all old packing and put
new right-sized packing back in.
I'm in the replace old valves camp, unless that's not practical.

--Vic

it's really not. other than the shutoff concerns, it's less than an
inch from a sweat fitting in each direction.

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

repacking a main valve
 

I think you demonstrate a very real technique. Many workers
will do a little more, if paid in appreciation, and food.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Tony Hwang" wrote in message
...
Hi,
Ditto. I lucked out when city crew showed up to upgrade our
water meter
with WiFi remote reader. I bribed them to replace the main
shut off with
ball valve I already had for the purpose. 2 six pack soda
was the price.

repacking a main valve
 

Most globe, or angle valves, that works OK. Many hardware
stores have packing material, you can add to the existing
packing material. Looks like tar soaked string.

If the valve is shut off, you can remove the packing nut.
Good idea to hold the valve shut with one hand, while
wrenching the packing nut off with the other.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Nate Nagel" wrote in message
...
Hi all

am helping a friend remodel his downstairs bathroom, and as
a result
have had to mess with the plumbing. Two valves in his
laundry room were
dripping when I noticed them; one being the cold water
shutoff for the
washing machine, and the other being the main shutoff for
the house. I
tightened down the packing nuts on both and of course the
one for the
washer is now fine, but the one for the main is still
seeping.

I'm having a hard time visualizing, probably because I've
been up late
every night this week either playing with power tools or
huffing flux
fumes. On a typical older stop and waste valve, if I shut
the valve off,
can I remove the packing nut and shove some more packing in
there
without having the water shut off *prior* to that valve?
Obviously that
is one valve that I'm not going to offer to replace for him
because of
the possibility of Things Going Badly (I don't even know
where the
street shutoff is...)

On the upside, my soldering skills have improved
dramatically what with
all the practice. I (touch wood) didn't have a single leaky
joint...

thanks

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel