I would like to add a attachment to this valve so I could use the cold water attached to my garden hose. Is this possible and how? Preferably not to cut the pipe above it and below it.

Normally there's enough play in the water pipes that you can cut the pipe in one spot; install a tee fitting and install a "sillcock" on the middle leg of that tee.

If you are not experienced at soldering, there are fittings called "Sharkbite" fittings that push directly onto the cut copper pipe so that you don't need to do any soldering.

I did something like this, years ago. I had to cut,
sweat solder, and rework the piping a bit.

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

On 8/29/2013 4:09 PM, novel wrote:
I would like to add a attachment to this valve so

I could use the cold water attached to my garden hose.

Is this possible and how? Preferably not to cut the

pipe above it and below it.

On 8/29/13 4:09 PM, novel wrote:
I would like to add a attachment to this valve so I could use the cold water attached to my garden hose. Is this possible and how? Preferably not to cut the pipe above it and below it.

Is this valve soldered to copper pipe, or threaded on iron pipe ??

Is there an elbow nearby ?? It might be easier to replace an elbow
with a tee and add hose faucet/bib to the tee.

On Thursday, August 29, 2013 4:52:53 PM UTC-4, Retired wrote:
On 8/29/13 4:09 PM, novel wrote:

I would like to add a attachment to this valve so I could use the cold water attached to my garden hose. Is this possible and how? Preferably not to cut the pipe above it and below it.



Is this valve soldered to copper pipe, or threaded on iron pipe ??

YES, its soldered to what looks like a 1" copper pipe and no elbow in sight.



Is there an elbow nearby ?? It might be easier to replace an elbow

with a tee and add hose faucet/bib to the tee.
what is a tee and faucet/bib? Sorry, but thanks

This is a copper tee:
http://images.orgill.com/200x200/1367226.jpg

This is a faucet/bib:
http://cdn.mscdirect.com/global/imag...3689610-23.jpg

The latter goes by many names. Some people call it a sillcock, others call it a hydrant, others call it a boiler drain valve. It's just a valve with a male garden hose outlet so that you can attach a garden hose to it.

However, you said:

I would like to add a attachment to this valve so I could use the cold water attached to my garden hose. Is this possible and how? Preferably not to cut the pipe above it and below it.

I presumed you wanted to add a valve to which you can connect a garden hose, but on rereading your post, you're saying you already have a valve in place and want to modify it with an attachment so that you can connect a garden hose to it.

If you already have a valve in place, but there is no place to connect a garden hose to it, then you'd need to add a tee, and connect a faucet/bib to that tee.

On Thursday, August 29, 2013 6:53:37 PM UTC-4, novel wrote:
On Thursday, August 29, 2013 4:52:53 PM UTC-4, Retired wrote:

On 8/29/13 4:09 PM, novel wrote:



I would like to add a attachment to this valve so I could use the cold water attached to my garden hose. Is this possible and how? Preferably not to cut the pipe above it and below it.







Is this valve soldered to copper pipe, or threaded on iron pipe ??



YES, its soldered to what looks like a 1" copper pipe and no elbow in sight.







Is there an elbow nearby ?? It might be easier to replace an elbow



with a tee and add hose faucet/bib to the tee.

what is a tee and faucet/bib? Sorry, but thanks


Google is your friend. Just google "copper tee", "hose bibb".
Also, I doubt that the copper water pipe coming into the WH is
1". 3/4" would be more common. Basically you're going to have
to do what you don't want to do, cut the pipe, then solder in the
appropriate new stuff, eg a tee, adaptor, and hose bibb. I'd probably put
the bibb somewhere better located though, so that if it drips,
someone opens it, etc it's not pouring down on the WH.

A couple/few photos of the current installation would be very helpful. Isn't there any other place you could tap into the cold water supply to add an outdoor faucet??

Dont SOLDER lines anywhere close to water heater!! the cold water inlet dip tube are plastic and can melt ........

far better to install a valve far from the heater......

lines and valves are cheap, water heaters cost far more, and if a tank is older disturbing the lines can cause a leak, in which case your far better off to just replace the tank

Anything more than 12 inches away from the tank shouldn't be a problem, Bob. If it's a concern, a person could just wrap a wet rag around the pipe between the tank and where the soldering is being done. As long as the copper pipe is wet on the outside, it can't get any hotter than 212 deg. F.

Good soldering practice involves heating the joint you want to solder QUICKLY with the torch burning like crazy. That's because the longer you're heating a joint, the warmer the surrounding joints will get, and the greater the possibility that a neighboring joint is gonna melt or even come apart on you. And, the longer you're heating a joint, the greater the liklihood that you're going to boil off all the flux inside the joint so that it doesn't take solder. In fact, some torch heads have TWO mixing tubes to heat joints twice as fast and get them twice as hot for brazing refrigeration tubing:

http://www.northwaysmachinery.com/im...I%20DS1D1W.jpg

What does happen a lot when you do anything with a water heater is sediment on the inside of the hot water supply piping loosening up and causing your hot water to turn yellow or even brown when you first turn on the water after replacing the water heater. If you have cast iron hot water supply piping, it's common to have your faucet aerators getting clogged up with sediment loosened up from the inside of the hot water supply pipes. Whenever faucets stop working properly immediately after replacing the hot water heater, check that the faucet spout aerators aren't clogged up with stuff.

On Thursday, August 29, 2013 7:44:57 PM UTC-4, nestork wrote:
novel;3114180 Wrote:

what is a tee and faucet/bib? Sorry, but thanks



This is a copper tee:

http://images.orgill.com/200x200/1367226.jpg



This is a faucet/bib:

http://cdn.mscdirect.com/global/imag...3689610-23.jpg



The latter goes by many names. Some people call it a sillcock, others

call it a hydrant, others call it a boiler drain valve. It's just a

valve with a male garden hose outlet so that you can attach a garden

hose to it.



However, you said:



- I would like to add a attachment to this valve so I could use the

cold water attached to my garden hose. Is this possible and how?

Preferably not to cut the pipe above it and below it.-



I presumed you wanted to add a valve to which you can connect a garden

hose, but on rereading your post, you're saying you already have a valve

in place and want to modify it with an attachment so that you can

connect a garden hose to it.



If you already have a valve in place, but there is no place to connect a

garden hose to it, then you'd need to add a tee, and connect a

faucet/bib to that tee.

The valve I am talking about is the cold water inlet valve. Yes, I could attach the hose to a washer , but there would be too many curves to get a good flow. I would rather have a straight flow if possible. The faucet/bib is what i would like to have, but i am not that handy to install a tee first. Is it possible to remove the 'wheel' of that inlet cold water valve and screw this into it bypassing the tee installation?









--

nestork

On 8/30/2013 8:49 AM, novel wrote:
On Thursday, August 29, 2013 7:44:57 PM UTC-4, nestork wrote:
novel;3114180 Wrote:

what is a tee and faucet/bib? Sorry, but thanks



This is a copper tee:

http://images.orgill.com/200x200/1367226.jpg



This is a faucet/bib:

http://cdn.mscdirect.com/global/imag...3689610-23.jpg





The latter goes by many names. Some people call it a sillcock, others

call it a hydrant, others call it a boiler drain valve. It's just
a

valve with a male garden hose outlet so that you can attach a
garden

hose to it.



However, you said:



- I would like to add a attachment to this valve so I could use
the

cold water attached to my garden hose. Is this possible and how?

Preferably not to cut the pipe above it and below it.-



I presumed you wanted to add a valve to which you can connect a
garden

hose, but on rereading your post, you're saying you already have a
valve

in place and want to modify it with an attachment so that you can

connect a garden hose to it.



If you already have a valve in place, but there is no place to
connect a

garden hose to it, then you'd need to add a tee, and connect a

faucet/bib to that tee.

The valve I am talking about is the cold water inlet valve. Yes, I
could attach the hose to a washer , but there would be too many
curves to get a good flow. I would rather have a straight flow if
possible. The faucet/bib is what i would like to have, but i am not
that handy to install a tee first. Is it possible to remove the
'wheel' of that inlet cold water valve and screw this into it
bypassing the tee installation?

No, and you want to leave that valve in place to simplify installation
of a new water heater if/when that time comes. In fact I like to put a
valve on the outlet as well, that way you don't have to drain down the
whole house just to install a WH.

You're going to have to cut a pipe and splice in a tee/valve to do what
you want to do, but it's not the end of the world. Don't worry about
the elbows restricting flow, that's a 3/4" pipe, and the flow is not
going to be significantly limited by a single 90.

If you're messing about in that area, do you have a humidifier and does
it do an adequate job of humidifying in the winter? One thing you could
do while you have the system drained is to tee it into the hot water
outlet from the heater, the hot water to the humidifier will evaporate
faster than the cold water that is usually used.

nate

On Thursday, August 29, 2013 10:30:22 PM UTC-4, bob haller wrote:
Dont SOLDER lines anywhere close to water heater!! the cold water inlet dip tube are plastic and can melt ........



far better to install a valve far from the heater......



Would about 32 feet be a safe distance?

novel wrote:
I would like to add a attachment to this valve so I could use the cold
water attached to my garden hose. Is this possible and how? Preferably
not to cut the pipe above it and below it.

One thing that has not been mentioned is the water pressure at the tank.

I have a Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV) to lower the street pressure before
the water enters my main plumbing system. The front hose spigot has always
been plumbed in before the PRV so my front spigot has full street pressure,
which is great for washing cars, watering etc.

However, the spigot for the back yard was plumbed in after the PRV, in
fact, into the pipe that feeds the water heater, just like you want to do.
This resulted in lower pressure for the back yard hose. A wimpy garden hose
is no fun.

A few years ago, I installed a SharkBite Tee into the pipe to front spigot
and then ran PEX across the basement ceiling to the rear spigot so that I
now have street pressure for the backyard hose also.

If you have a PRV, then you probably have house pressure at the tank, which
is what you'll get from the hose. If you have a way of Tee'ing in before
the PRV, I think you'll be much happier with the results. Sharkbites and
PEX make this such an easy job, that even a person who hates plumbing can
do it.

On Friday, August 30, 2013 8:49:42 AM UTC-4, novel wrote:
The valve I am talking about is the cold water inlet valve. Yes, I could attach the hose to a washer , but there would be too many curves to get a good flow. I would rather have a straight flow if possible.

What are you doing that the single-digit-% reduction in flow from a few curves in the hose is THAT critical?

You would need to be running hundreds of feet of hose before you'd start noticing any reduction in pressure/flow due to losses from the hose not being perfectly straight.

In fact, the losses in the TEE are more significant than anything caused by the hose.

wrote:
On Friday, August 30, 2013 8:49:42 AM UTC-4, novel wrote:
The valve I am talking about is the cold water inlet valve. Yes, I could
attach the hose to a washer , but there would be too many curves to get
a good flow. I would rather have a straight flow if possible.

What are you doing that the single-digit-% reduction in flow from a few
curves in the hose is THAT critical?

You would need to be running hundreds of feet of hose before you'd start
noticing any reduction in pressure/flow due to losses from the hose not
being perfectly straight.

In fact, the losses in the TEE are more significant than anything caused by the hose.

....and, as I said in an earlier post, if he has a PRV, the loss from that
device is going to have the greatest impact, by far.

If the OP is worried about pressure, and if he has a PRV, he really should
consider Tee'ing in before the PRV. I "moved" my back yard spigot from
after the PRV to before it and the wife was quite happy with the results.
When even she, the most non-technical person I know, noticed the difference
the first time she watered the gardens, you know that there was a vast
improvement in the pressure.

Years ago, I took some fire protection courses. We
learned that globe valve equals about 70 feet of
pipe, angle valve is 45, and ball valve or gate
valve are nearly no added resistance. So, I'd
worry more about type of valve, rather than a
couple elbows.

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

On 8/30/2013 10:36 AM, wrote:
On Friday, August 30, 2013 8:49:42 AM UTC-4, novel wrote:
The valve I am talking about is the cold water
inlet valve. Yes, I could attach the hose to a washer ,
but there would be too many curves to get a good flow.
I would rather have a straight flow if possible.

What are you doing that the single-digit-% reduction
in flow from a few curves in the hose is THAT critical?
You would need to be running hundreds of feet of hose
before you'd start noticing any reduction in pressure/
flow due to losses from the hose not being perfectly
straight.

In fact, the losses in the TEE are more significant
than anything caused by the hose.

On Friday, August 30, 2013 9:08:13 AM UTC-4, Nate Nagel wrote:
On 8/30/2013 8:49 AM, novel wrote:

On Thursday, August 29, 2013 7:44:57 PM UTC-4, nestork wrote:

novel;3114180 Wrote:



what is a tee and faucet/bib? Sorry, but thanks







This is a copper tee:



http://images.orgill.com/200x200/1367226.jpg







This is a faucet/bib:



http://cdn.mscdirect.com/global/imag...3689610-23.jpg











The latter goes by many names. Some people call it a sillcock, others



call it a hydrant, others call it a boiler drain valve. It's just

a



valve with a male garden hose outlet so that you can attach a

garden



hose to it.







However, you said:







- I would like to add a attachment to this valve so I could use

the



cold water attached to my garden hose. Is this possible and how?



Preferably not to cut the pipe above it and below it.-







I presumed you wanted to add a valve to which you can connect a

garden



hose, but on rereading your post, you're saying you already have a

valve



in place and want to modify it with an attachment so that you can



connect a garden hose to it.







If you already have a valve in place, but there is no place to

connect a



garden hose to it, then you'd need to add a tee, and connect a



faucet/bib to that tee.



The valve I am talking about is the cold water inlet valve. Yes, I

could attach the hose to a washer , but there would be too many

curves to get a good flow. I would rather have a straight flow if

possible. The faucet/bib is what i would like to have, but i am not

that handy to install a tee first. Is it possible to remove the

'wheel' of that inlet cold water valve and screw this into it

bypassing the tee installation?



No, and you want to leave that valve in place to simplify installation

of a new water heater if/when that time comes.

More importantly, to be able to shut it off if it springs a
leak, without shutting off water to the whole house while
waiting to get a new WH.



In fact I like to put a

valve on the outlet as well, that way you don't have to drain down the

whole house just to install a WH.



You're going to have to cut a pipe and splice in a tee/valve to do what

you want to do, but it's not the end of the world.


IDK, it could be.
Might be better to call a pro. I'm also wondering
about if the location even makes sense, ie there might
be a better location, more convenient, etc that you
could do with about the same work. I can't recall
ever seeing a garden hose bibb located on the
cold water intake line of a water heater.

" wrote:

....snip...

Might be better to call a pro. I'm also wondering
about if the location even makes sense, ie there might
be a better location, more convenient, etc that you
could do with about the same work. I can't recall
ever seeing a garden hose bibb located on the
cold water intake line of a water heater.

It sounds to me like the OP wants to make the installation as easy as
possible, i.e. one fitting in an already exposed run of pipe.

If everything after the WH goes up into a finished space, it might be
difficult to tap in anywhere else, especially if he doesn't even want to
cut that one pipe.

That said, I'd still look into the PRV situation since the OP seems to be
concerned about too many turns in the hose reducing the pressure. Tap in
before the PRV and pressure probably won't be an issue.

On Friday, August 30, 2013 12:51:30 PM UTC-4, DerbyDad03 wrote:
" wrote:



...snip...



Might be better to call a pro. I'm also wondering

about if the location even makes sense, ie there might

be a better location, more convenient, etc that you

could do with about the same work. I can't recall

ever seeing a garden hose bibb located on the

cold water intake line of a water heater.



It sounds to me like the OP wants to make the installation as easy as

possible, i.e. one fitting in an already exposed run of pipe.



It sounds like he wants to just unscrew the valve on the
water heater input, or part of the valve, and somehow convert it
into a hose bibb. I think we'rea all in agreement, that isn't
going to happen.




If everything after the WH goes up into a finished space, it might be

difficult to tap in anywhere else, especially if he doesn't even want to

cut that one pipe.



That said, I'd still look into the PRV situation since the OP seems to be

concerned about too many turns in the hose reducing the pressure. Tap in

before the PRV and pressure probably won't be an issue.

I agree. If you have to cut a copper pipe, which isn't a big
deal, it could open up all kinds of options, so I think he
shouldnt' focus on just the WH

On 8/30/2013 10:55 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
Years ago, I took some fire protection courses. We
learned that globe valve equals about 70 feet of
pipe, angle valve is 45, and ball valve or gate
valve are nearly no added resistance. So, I'd
worry more about type of valve, rather than a
couple elbows.

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

On 8/30/2013 10:36 AM, wrote:
On Friday, August 30, 2013 8:49:42 AM UTC-4, novel wrote:
The valve I am talking about is the cold water
inlet valve. Yes, I could attach the hose to a washer ,
but there would be too many curves to get a good flow.
I would rather have a straight flow if possible.

What are you doing that the single-digit-% reduction
in flow from a few curves in the hose is THAT critical?
You would need to be running hundreds of feet of hose
before you'd start noticing any reduction in pressure/
flow due to losses from the hose not being perfectly
straight.

In fact, the losses in the TEE are more significant
than anything caused by the hose.


yes, a ball valve with a 3/4" NPT to GHT adapter is the ideal solution -
as it'll last longer than the washer in a boiler drain as well.

However, if you use one, I would get a brass GHT cap for the outlet,
preferably on a chain if you can find one, to cap off the opening when
not in use. All it takes is a misplaced elbow to take a quarter turn
ball valve from shut to WFO.

nate