pstunt Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Hi, is anyone able to tell me what this connection is specifically called ? It was fitted at the end of a water polypipe ending on the edge of our building line a few years ago, as part of a series of 4 builds nearby. The connected pipe runs about 200 yards to where the water will be. We have only just bought the plot and I am sure I can get in touch with the builder who installed it to ask but I thought the collective minds here would know. In essence we want to test the pipe and I want to put a stand pipe, or something similar on it. The cap unscrews and there is a screw fitting with some sort of ball valve inside. Would this be something a water meter would typically go ? On the top side out of shot slightly buried is also what appears to be a cap inserted in what I appear is where the outgoing connection goes. It's not clear to me how that cap is removed. This connection is eventually going to be removed but I just want to test the pipe before I get the waterboard in to connect the other end. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epsilonGreedy Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Anglian Water installed one of those at the boundary of my plot when connecting my builders supply standpipe to the water main. In my case there is a meter in place of the screw plug shown in your photo. Have you tried turning the blue tap 1/4 of a turn anti clockwise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstunt Posted December 13, 2021 Author Share Posted December 13, 2021 10 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said: Anglian Water installed one of those at the boundary of my plot when connecting my builders supply standpipe to the water main. In my case there is a meter in place of the screw plug shown in your photo. Have you tried turning the blue tap 1/4 of a turn anti clockwise? Yes, I have turned the blue tap with the other end of the pipe connected to a high pressure water source but neither air or water came out. So I am assuming either the plug needs to be removed or a suitable connection on the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Mains water comes in at the tap end, the supply to the property connects at the other end, and whether a meter is fitted is irrelevant. Understand also there is a checkvalve inside to stop backflow. If you're unsure about the connection status you could try undoing the meter cap and opening the valve, to check for an early shower... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 The "plug" next to the tap is not blocking the pipe, it's the thing you would unscrew if you (or the water company) was fitting a water meter. Turn the blue handle 90 degrees from it's present position and water should flow. If not it is not a live connection yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstunt Posted December 13, 2021 Author Share Posted December 13, 2021 Sorry I probably haven't explained myself very well. I have unscrewed the cap and there seems to be some sort of screw fitting with a ball valve underneath. With the cap off I have connected the other end of the pipe ( 200m away ) to a high pressure water source. I have then turned the blue handle 90 degrees but no water flowed out. My guess is that this ball valve is stopping the water and it needs a particular connection to allow it to float. I was sort of hoping that someone could tell me what this connection might be so I can purchase whatever I need to allow water to come out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 the only water "source" that should be connected should be the mains supply at the blue valve end of the Toby. The connections in and out of the Toby are likely to be in blue MDPE, and the fittings on each end of the toby- deep underground- are generally 3/4"bsp IIRC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstunt Posted December 13, 2021 Author Share Posted December 13, 2021 1 minute ago, dpmiller said: the only water "source" that should be connected should be the mains supply at the blue valve end of the Toby. The connections in and out of the Toby are likely to be in blue MDPE, and the fittings on each end of the toby- deep underground- are generally 3/4"bsp IIRC Ok thanks. So purely for testing purposes it would seem I have to get a connection on the outbound hole and forget about connecting something where the meter would go ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epsilonGreedy Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 (edited) 48 minutes ago, pstunt said: Sorry I probably haven't explained myself very well. I have unscrewed the cap and there seems to be some sort of screw fitting with a ball valve underneath. With the cap off I have connected the other end of the pipe ( 200m away ) to a high pressure water source Which end? The blue tap end or the other? Please do the following: Remove your own "high pressure" test water source. Unscrew the cap/plug. Turn the blue tap 1/4 opf a turn. Tell us what happened. Edited December 13, 2021 by epsilonGreedy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstunt Posted December 13, 2021 Author Share Posted December 13, 2021 5 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said: Which end? The blue tap end or the other? Please do the following: Remove your own "high pressure" test water source. Unscrew the cap/plug. Turn the blue tap 1/4 opf a turn. Tell us what happened. The blue tap end ( bottom of the picture) is the inbound connection of about a 200 meter blue poly pipe which is currently not connected to anything. This 200 m away unconnected end is where the meter will go. I have turned the tap and expectedly nothing happens. I then connected the “to be” meter end to the adjacent fire hydrant ( its on a metered connection for other work going on ) and whilst I can here the water going along the 200 m pipe, nothing is happening when I open the blue tap. There is some sort of plug / lug in the outbound hole on the top of what I think is being referred to as a Toby. i need to either get this plug out somehow and if necessary get a suitable connection on it or get something where the meter would go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Right, so you've no supply and the pipe is going towards where the supply will come from. What you have here is a boundary box, and someone will be installing another at teh end of your 200m pipe... Your 200m pipe will take quite a few minutes to fill. And the plug at the other end of the toby will unscrew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epsilonGreedy Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 Hmm. You say after connecting a test water supply to the far end of the 200m blue pipe you can hear water moving through the pipe. For how long do you hear the flowing sound? Did you wait long enough for a fountain of water to gush out of the removed meter plug? The air in the empty blue water pipe is quite compressible under mains water pressure so you might be hearing a short flow of water. Does some water squirt out of the blue pipe when you remove the test water source? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstunt Posted December 13, 2021 Author Share Posted December 13, 2021 22 minutes ago, dpmiller said: And the plug at the other end of the toby will unscrew. Ok, great. When I get chance I will dig away at the mud to get to the plug and see how to unscrew it. I haven’t studied it to closely yet. 24 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said: Hmm. You say after connecting a test water supply to the far end of the 200m blue pipe you can hear water moving through the pipe. For how long do you hear the flowing sound? Did you wait long enough for a fountain of water to gush out of the removed meter plug? The air in the empty blue water pipe is quite compressible under mains water pressure so you might be hearing a short flow of water. Does some water squirt out of the blue pipe when you remove the test water source? We waited a few minutes and no water came out the unscrewed cap shown in the picture but there is what appears to be a ball valve in that hole blocking it. I will try and get more pictures. When we removed the source pipe, it did gush back as though it had compressed the air and then fixed it back when it decompressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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