The pipe freezer work just like they say on the tin, if you follow what it says on the tin exactly.

You could always hold the ball valve up somehow .........

Rick


On Thu, 02 Oct 2003 16:00:38 +0100, PoP wrote:
Must be my week for pipework problems, and I don't think dry bread
will solve this one.....

I've been asked to fix a toilet cistern. The plunger into which the
bent wire attached to the cistern handle is physically broken, so I'm
looking at replacing the syphon assembly. No issue there, looks very
straightforward.

Problem is that I can't get the water feed switched off. I turned the
house mains supply off and (eventually - it's a big house) drained the
system, but it kept coming thru in spurts even after an hour. Seemed
to me that this water supply was going to keep throwing water at me
for some time to come.

Someone in the past has built a surround around the pipework behind
the toilet, under the cistern, and wallpapered without leaving an
access hole. Now I suspect there will most probably be a shut off
valve under there somewhere, and I'm going back tomorrow with a view
to drilling out an access hole so that I can get my hand in. Then
hopefully I can shut off the water supply to the cistern and deal with
the syphon.

I'm curious as to how one might shut off a water supply which doesn't
appear to have a valve in the pipework? Only thing I can think of is
to freeze the pipe so as to create an ice bung - is that doable with
one of these pipe freezing aerosols I've seen in the sheds? It's
always struck me that this was a bit of a gimmick, but maybe it's time
for me to give it a try. If the pipe bung works, how long have I got
before it thaws out? A couple of minutes?

PoP