Hi,

I've sorted out the leak on the washing machine valves I posted about last
week (thanks to everyone who replied). Now I've got another problem.

The stopcock itself has a smallish leak - perhaps enough to lose half a pint
of water per day. It's quite low down so it's difficult to put a large
enough container underneath it so I'm getting a fairly wet stone floor in my
kitchen, causing the carpet next to it to become fairly damp towards the
edge.

My father advised turning the pressure right down to reduce the effect of
back pressure (e.g. around a quarter turn from the 'off' position), which
I've tried without success, unfortunately - the only effect was to reduce
the water pressure to the taps around the house.

There is another stopcock/tap immediately after the water meter and I think
that this one is pretty much 'full on'.

Any ideas on how to best deal with this?

Cheers,
John.

"JM" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I've sorted out the leak on the washing machine valves I posted about last
week (thanks to everyone who replied). Now I've got another problem.

The stopcock itself has a smallish leak - perhaps enough to lose half a
pint
of water per day. It's quite low down so it's difficult to put a large
enough container underneath it so I'm getting a fairly wet stone floor in
my
kitchen, causing the carpet next to it to become fairly damp towards the
edge.

My father advised turning the pressure right down to reduce the effect of
back pressure (e.g. around a quarter turn from the 'off' position), which
I've tried without success, unfortunately - the only effect was to reduce
the water pressure to the taps around the house.

There is another stopcock/tap immediately after the water meter and I
think
that this one is pretty much 'full on'.

Any ideas on how to best deal with this?

You can't stop any (slow) leak by adjusting stopcocks (unless you turn them
right off). For most of the time they are affected only by the hydrostatic
pressure, which will be unaffected by how much a stopcock is turned on (as
you discovered), wherever it is in the circuit.

You need to [turn off the one in the street] and mend the one indoors. You
may be able to tighten the nut around the top of the shaft of the stopcock
to reduce the weep. More likely, it will be easier to replace it (if in a
copper pipe). If it's not in a copper pipe, you may be better off getting a
plumber (easier said than done, I know) to fix it, if tightening things
doesn't help.


--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)

Cheers,
John.

The stopcock itself has a smallish leak - perhaps enough to lose half a
pint
of water per day.

Where is the leak from? What sort of valve is it?

If it is a old style stopcock valve (rather than a lever arm type) and is
leaking from the handle stem, this is quite common and easy to fix. The stem
emerges from a nut on the valve body. Simply tighten this nut up a bit. It
is that simple. If this doesn't stem the leak (sorry about the pun), then
the nut can be removed and new packing inserted (i.e. lots of PTFE tape). If
you don't mind a bit of water, it is doable even without turning the water
off and pretty dry if you do turn it off.

Christian.

Christian McArdle wrote:
The stopcock itself has a smallish leak - perhaps enough to lose
half a pint of water per day.

Where is the leak from? What sort of valve is it?

If it is a old style stopcock valve (rather than a lever arm type)
and is leaking from the handle stem, this is quite common and easy to
fix. The stem emerges from a nut on the valve body. Simply tighten
this nut up a bit. It is that simple. If this doesn't stem the leak
(sorry about the pun), then the nut can be removed and new packing
inserted (i.e. lots of PTFE tape). If you don't mind a bit of water,
it is doable even without turning the water off and pretty dry if you
do turn it off.

It's an old-style one. It's similar to the one at
http://www.pettinaroli.com/310nda.htm, but is obviously quite a lot older,
using solder joints.

I will try tightening the nut tomorrow (a touch more water on the floor
can't hurt that much, and the valve is 10 miles away from me) and see how it
goes. The water does appear to be coming from between the nut and the stem.
If needs be, I can then look into getting new packing inserted.

Thanks,
John.

Bob Mannix wrote:

You can't stop any (slow) leak by adjusting stopcocks (unless you
turn them right off). For most of the time they are affected only by
the hydrostatic pressure, which will be unaffected by how much a
stopcock is turned on (as you discovered), wherever it is in the
circuit.

Will correct my dad when I next speak to him :-)

You need to [turn off the one in the street] and mend the one
indoors. You may be able to tighten the nut around the top of the
shaft of the stopcock to reduce the weep. More likely, it will be
easier to replace it (if in a copper pipe). If it's not in a copper
pipe, you may be better off getting a plumber (easier said than done,
I know) to fix it, if tightening things doesn't help.

I'll try tightening the nut first and see how it goes. It's in a copper
pipe, but using solder joints and my plumbing skills leave a _lot_ to be
desired. As you've said, it's hard getting plumbers in at the moment (I was
told that there was a 14 day wait when I wanted the washing machines valves
looked at - just got my dad to do it!)

John.

- wrote in message ...
Hi,

I've sorted out the leak on the washing machine valves I posted about last
week (thanks to everyone who replied). Now I've got another problem.

The stopcock itself has a smallish leak - perhaps enough to lose half a
pint of water per day. It's quite low down so it's difficult to put a
large enough container underneath it so I'm getting a fairly wet stone
floor in my kitchen, causing the carpet next to it to become fairly damp
towards the edge.

My father advised turning the pressure right down to reduce the effect of
back pressure (e.g. around a quarter turn from the 'off' position), which
I've tried without success, unfortunately - the only effect was to reduce
the water pressure to the taps around the house.

There is another stopcock/tap immediately after the water meter and I
think that this one is pretty much 'full on'.

Any ideas on how to best deal with this?

Cheers,
John.

My tap had a similar problem. Turning the tap on tended to unscrew the gland
nut as well.

I think such things are usually badly treated during the building stage and
the owner then suffers the consequences.

To be honest - I would like one of those on-off switch type valves with the
remote operating switch. A boon that would save emptying my cupboard to turn
off the water.

Base unit is almost wrecked due to leaks.




---
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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.784 / Virus Database: 530 - Release Date: 27/10/2004

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
JM wrote:


It's an old-style one. It's similar to the one at
http://www.pettinaroli.com/310nda.htm, but is obviously quite a lot
older, using solder joints.

I will try tightening the nut tomorrow (a touch more water on the
floor can't hurt that much, and the valve is 10 miles away from me)
and see how it goes. The water does appear to be coming from between
the nut and the stem. If needs be, I can then look into getting new
packing inserted.

This type of tap is notorious for leaking round the gland, where the shaft
emerges. They're ok for years, and then you turn them on and off a couple of
times and they start leaking.

The gland nut is the upper-most one in the picture, about 1/2" down from the
handle. When this is tightened, it compresses some soft material to form a
seal round the shaft. If tightening it doesn't fix it, unscrew it (but not
the works of the tap itself!) and slide it up the shaft towards the handle.
Then wrap 3 or 4 turns of thin string tightly round the shaft, below the
gland nut, and slide it down inside the space where the gland nut screws in.
Then slide the gland nut back down, and screw it in and tighten it. This
time it should be ok.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

Set Square wrote:
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
JM wrote:


It's an old-style one. It's similar to the one at
http://www.pettinaroli.com/310nda.htm, but is obviously quite a lot
older, using solder joints.

I will try tightening the nut tomorrow (a touch more water on the
floor can't hurt that much, and the valve is 10 miles away from me)
and see how it goes. The water does appear to be coming from between
the nut and the stem. If needs be, I can then look into getting new
packing inserted.

This type of tap is notorious for leaking round the gland, where the
shaft emerges. They're ok for years, and then you turn them on and
off a couple of times and they start leaking.

The gland nut is the upper-most one in the picture, about 1/2" down
from the handle. When this is tightened, it compresses some soft
material to form a seal round the shaft. If tightening it doesn't fix
it, unscrew it (but not the works of the tap itself!) and slide it up
the shaft towards the handle. Then wrap 3 or 4 turns of thin string
tightly round the shaft, below the gland nut, and slide it down
inside the space where the gland nut screws in. Then slide the gland
nut back down, and screw it in and tighten it. This time it should be
ok.

Thanks to everyone who replied - I tightened the nut and the leak now
appears to have stopped.

John.