Unused Stopcock Valve Crusty

[steveoelliott]

Hi Folks,

 

Over the weekend, my wife insisted that I cleared out a junk cupboard in our utility room, in doing so I discovered a stopcock (that we have never used) had a load of crust around it. It looks to me that at some stage it probably leaked and sealed itself. I've never used it as it's not the main stopcock but rather appears to be an isolator for the extenstion built ~14 years ago. We moved in over 4 years ago and have never touched it and probably won't have a reason to. However, given it's state, I presume that it would be worthwhile getting a plumber to swap it out.

 

Thanks in advance...

[Alan Ambrose]

Yes, they're very badly designed and made. I've never been sure whether that style is actually mandated for the water main entry to your premises. If you think you might need to use it in a hurry sometime in the future, and you're reasonably sure what it stops, then sure. If not for your for you mains entry, I would replace with a ball valve though, they're much better. e.g. https://www.screwfix.com/p/pegler-ball-valve-blue-15mm/11085

 

For the mains, I usually put a ball valve immediately downstream of the stopcock and use that in preference to the old-style stopcock. Or an MDPE Plasson fitting if it comes in as MDPE pipe.