Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore, quarter-
turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...all-Valve-15mm
And will it make any difference?

I can turn everything off in the street thanks to Thames Water having
just replaced the seized-up old victorian stopcock there with a shiny
new water meter.

Cheers!

Martin

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...
Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore, quarter-
turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...all-Valve-15mm

It will probably break the local byelaws and be illegal.

And will it make any difference?

Not unless the old one is faulty.. try a new washer or stop tap, they are
cheap.


I can turn everything off in the street thanks to Thames Water having
just replaced the seized-up old victorian stopcock there with a shiny
new water meter.

Cheers!

Martin

On Wed, 6 Aug 2008 22:18:28 UTC, "dennis@home"
wrote:

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...
Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore, quarter-
turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...all-Valve-15mm

It will probably break the local byelaws and be illegal.

Why?

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

On Wed, 6 Aug 2008 21:51:42 UTC, Martin Pentreath
wrote:

Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore, quarter-
turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...all-Valve-15mm
And will it make any difference?

I can turn everything off in the street thanks to Thames Water having
just replaced the seized-up old victorian stopcock there with a shiny
new water meter.

We have one of these fitted. I guess it will make a slight difference,
but in any case they are rather less prone to jamming (and quicker to
operate in an emergency).

Ours was really tricky to change because of location and pipe
comfiguration, so I got the water company to do it for a fixed price.
£79.99 for materials, altered pipework and 3.5 hours labour!

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
dennis@home wrote:

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...
Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore,
quarter- turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...all-Valve-15mm

It will probably break the local byelaws and be illegal.


Which particular laws would they be?

I've done just that with mine, anyway. It hasn't made much difference to the
flow, but it's made it a *lot* easier to turn the water off.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

On Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:51:42 -0700 (PDT), Martin Pentreath
wrote:

Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore, quarter-
turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...all-Valve-15mm
And will it make any difference?

I can turn everything off in the street thanks to Thames Water having
just replaced the seized-up old victorian stopcock there with a shiny
new water meter.

Cheers!

Martin

Go for it. A lot of water authorities are replacing with them and they
are a joy after the horrible corroded brass tap.

"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
dennis@home wrote:

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...
Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore,
quarter- turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...all-Valve-15mm

It will probably break the local byelaws and be illegal.


Which particular laws would they be?

Well they ate better so they are bound to break some law.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
dennis@home wrote:

"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
dennis@home wrote:

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...
Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore,
quarter- turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...all-Valve-15mm

It will probably break the local byelaws and be illegal.


Which particular laws would they be?

Well they ate better so they are bound to break some law.

Now come on - you've got to do better than that! Posting nonsense about
byelaws - without a scrap of evidence - has probably put off some people
from changing their stoptap for a much better full-bore ball valve.

Please don't make thing up - it's very unhelpful to those who are looking
for good ideas!
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

On 7 Aug, 11:07, "Roger Mills" wrote:
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,



dennis@home *wrote:
"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
dennis@home *wrote:

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
....
Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore,
quarter- turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...Full-Bore-Leve....

It will probably break the local byelaws and be illegal.

Which particular laws would they be?

Well they ate better so they are bound to break some law.

Now come on - you've got to do better than that! Posting nonsense about
byelaws - without a scrap of evidence - has probably put off some people
from changing their stoptap for a much better full-bore ball valve.

Please don't make thing up - it's very unhelpful to those who are looking
for good ideas!

Are you sure it's made up? I have heard that only the water company is
allowed to use the stopcock in the street. I also _know_ from someone
else's experience that they say they no longer provide a service to do
this for you (which SE needs as it requires a funny key and is stuck).
They say "use a freezer spray", which SE can't do as the internal
stopcock is flush to the floor.

More importantly, it's been said (probably here) that the pretty blue
plastic handles on the water meter stopcocks are prone to breaking
off, which could be a problem if it does so in the off position and
you have to confess.

Chris

On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 10:07:29 +0100, Roger Mills wrote:

Now come on - you've got to do better than that! Posting nonsense about
byelaws - without a scrap of evidence - has probably put off some people
from changing their stoptap for a much better full-bore ball valve.

Agreed, cite the byelaw etc...

The only thing that I can see a stumbling block is that I think there is
now a requirement for a (double?) check valve in the incoming mains, some
stop cocks come with those built in. Of cousre one can just fit and inline
one post the full bore isolation valve.

--
Cheers
Dave.

"dennis@home" writes:

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...

Any problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore,
quarter- turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...all-Valve-15mm

It will probably break the local byelaws and be illegal.

The OP would do well to use a WRAS certified valve such as
URL:http://www.screwfix.com/prods/21289/Plumbing/Pegler-Brassware/Pegler-Ball-Valve-Red-15mm
or better. As you allude to, that is the law---but also because they
ought to be less prone to comical failures at inopportune moments.

BTW, there haven't been any local water byelaws in Britain since they
were `unified'. See URL:http://www.wras.co.uk/ for details.

--
Mark

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.net...
On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 10:07:29 +0100, Roger Mills wrote:

Now come on - you've got to do better than that! Posting nonsense about
byelaws - without a scrap of evidence - has probably put off some people
from changing their stoptap for a much better full-bore ball valve.

Agreed, cite the byelaw etc...

The only thing that I can see a stumbling block is that I think there is
now a requirement for a (double?) check valve in the incoming mains, some
stop cocks come with those built in. Of cousre one can just fit and inline
one post the full bore isolation valve.

Ahh, a full bore check valve?

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Dave Liquorice wrote:

On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 10:07:29 +0100, Roger Mills wrote:

Now come on - you've got to do better than that! Posting nonsense
about byelaws - without a scrap of evidence - has probably put off
some people from changing their stoptap for a much better full-bore
ball valve.

Agreed, cite the byelaw etc...

The only thing that I can see a stumbling block is that I think there
is now a requirement for a (double?) check valve in the incoming
mains, some stop cocks come with those built in. Of cousre one can
just fit and inline one post the full bore isolation valve.

Maybe for new installations? I haven't seen any evidence of the water
companies rushing round to retro-fit a check valve in every property - nor
indeed any requirement for the householder to do so. So if you replace a
gunged-up old stopcock with a shiny new ball valve, you ain't going to make
things any *worse* than the status quo!
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

Just a word of warning: I fitted one of those (exactly as in the
link) to replace a knackered stopcock and it wouldn't turn off
completely, which was a pain as I was trying to isolate the supply for
a while. Had to scoot and buy a 'proper' stopcock in mid-job. It was
probably just the one I had, but I didn't want to spend the day
swapping it and finding the new one didn't work either. I just put it
down to another good idea gone wrong.....

"Mark Williams" ] wrote in message
. ..


BTW, there haven't been any local water byelaws in Britain since they
were `unified'. See URL:http://www.wras.co.uk/ for details.

That's something I didn't know, but I ain't a plumber, I just do the odd
heating system when its too complicated for a plumber.

wrote in message
...
On 7 Aug, 11:07, "Roger Mills" wrote:
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,



dennis@home wrote:
"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
dennis@home wrote:

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...
Hi, the water pressure and rate of flow at our place is a bit
marginal. On the water main is an ageing stopcock. As I understand,
stopcocks are not full-bore, so they reduce the flow a bit. Any
problem with replacing the internal stopcock with a full-bore,
quarter- turn isolation valve? Eg
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/13103/...Full-Bore-Leve...

It will probably break the local byelaws and be illegal.

Which particular laws would they be?

Well they ate better so they are bound to break some law.

Now come on - you've got to do better than that! Posting nonsense about
byelaws - without a scrap of evidence - has probably put off some people
from changing their stoptap for a much better full-bore ball valve.

Please don't make thing up - it's very unhelpful to those who are looking
for good ideas!

Are you sure it's made up? I have heard that only the water company is
allowed to use the stopcock in the street. I also _know_ from someone
else's experience that they say they no longer provide a service to do
this for you (which SE needs as it requires a funny key and is stuck).
They say "use a freezer spray", which SE can't do as the internal
stopcock is flush to the floor.

More importantly, it's been said (probably here) that the pretty blue
plastic handles on the water meter stopcocks are prone to breaking
off, which could be a problem if it does so in the off position and
you have to confess.

Chris

Why do you have to confess. Blame kids and say it happens all the time
around here.

Adam

In article et,
"Dave Liquorice" writes:
The only thing that I can see a stumbling block is that I think there is
now a requirement for a (double?) check valve in the incoming mains, some
stop cocks come with those built in. Of cousre one can just fit and inline
one post the full bore isolation valve.

Interesting. Instructions for installing many types of mains pressure
water heaters explicitly disallow the use of a check valve in the
incoming mains. They rely on the water expanding (a small amount) back
up the supply as it's heated.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

ARWadworth coughed up some electrons that declared:

Are you sure it's made up? I have heard that only the water company is
allowed to use the stopcock in the street.

I have no idea about the legalities - wouldn't be surprised if it were the
case. However, I've never known anyone be worried in practise about doing
it provided they've got a bar with the right end. I guess the main things
not to do a

a) Turn someone else's water off (very easy with a small block of flats and
1/2 dozen cocks in a row);

b) Break the stopcock. I can see waterco charging for this... OTOH the
stopcock will work afterwards...

Probably got the best excuse if the riser is lead, as freezer spray would be
a distinctly bad idea ;-


Cheers

Tim

On 07 Aug 2008 19:28:16 GMT, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Interesting. Instructions for installing many types of mains pressure
water heaters explicitly disallow the use of a check valve in the
incoming mains.

I did say "I think"... B-)

A few snippets of information filed away to be checked for accuracy before
using.

--
Cheers
Dave.