Manifold choice?

[Pete]

Just deciding on some aspects of my plumbing and will be using the manifold for my H&C system. Question I have is why have people chosen the manifold with isolation valves over the non isolation valve ones which are quite a bit cheaper? Is it just to be able to isolate individual pipes or is there something more to it? If I chose the non valve ones I could still put one isolation valve at the inlet which I know would isolate the entire manifold but that in itself would not be a problem. TIA

[Big Neil]

Convenience? Say you need to repair an issue with your kitchen cold feed you could still get water from your ensuite or your bathroom or wherever else if you have individual isolation points, where to isolate the whole manifold  means you'd be without ANY water.

[Big Neil]

I think it's an american system but the Viega one looks quite neat.

[ProDave]

For me the reason to have taps / valves, is you can turn on circuits as you connect them, e.g our en-suite is not yet done so that one remains firmly valved off at the moment but when we connect it, we just have to turn it on.

[PeterW]

13 hours ago, Pete said:

Just deciding on some aspects of my plumbing and will be using the manifold for my H&C system. Question I have is why have people chosen the manifold with isolation valves over the non isolation valve ones which are quite a bit cheaper? Is it just to be able to isolate individual pipes or is there something more to it? If I chose the non valve ones I could still put one isolation valve at the inlet which I know would isolate the entire manifold but that in itself would not be a problem. TIA

 

I'll post a pic later but all I do is make a copper feed bar with 22/15 tees all soldered then use 15mm Hep2O isolators onto the Hep2O feeds to the separate rooms. So this is one to a bathroom, one to ensuite and one to downstairs WC/Utility/KItchen. Only the last one has isolators on the pipes just before the taps for obvious reasons.

[Big Jimbo]

13 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

I'll post a pic later but all I do is make a copper feed bar with 22/15 tees all soldered then use 15mm Hep2O isolators onto the Hep2O feeds to the separate rooms. So this is one to a bathroom, one to ensuite and one to downstairs WC/Utility/KItchen. Only the last one has isolators on the pipes just before the taps for obvious reasons.

I have done exactly that in the past, and find it works really well. One full bore isolator on the incomming 22mm, and individual full bore isolators on each out. Spent about an hour making it, and cost about £30

[ProDave]

My only regret is that I DID use full bore isolators on the showers. It might have slowed the hot water usage if I had used smaller ones.  We get 15L per minute on he showers at full flow.

[Alexphd1]

Approx £60 from antares for a 12 port. Antares are trade only.

[AdamSee]

I've got the abacus manifolds for my bathroom so that I could isolate the hot and cold for everything in there easily from under the sink unit. There good, but pretty pricey.I guess there must be much cheaper options around. But would definitely  use them again in places like the utility. I did look for the Hep2O system, but apparently they've ceased production of that item now and couldn't find any stockist of it.

 

(I was mid way through plumbing when I took the pic)

 

Two thing that I particularly like about these, is that one - you can restrict the flow as much as necessary on each item, which is great if you don't fancy wiping down the floor every time your nephew opens the tap full blast into a shallow sink. and two - there's a little grey disc under the coloured ones that specifies what item its isolating. I like to label all my sockets and isolators....but hate my own handwriting.

Edited April 12, 2019 by AdamSee

[Gone West]

19 hours ago, Pete said:

Is it just to be able to isolate individual pipes or is there something more to it? If I chose the non valve ones I could still put one isolation valve at the inlet which I know would isolate the entire manifold but that in itself would not be a problem.

As you say I just wanted to be able to isolate each pipe run separately. I was lucky when I bought mine as the manufacturers were changing the design and I bought the old design for £4 each for a four way manifold from Screwfix.

[Jeremy Harris]

59 minutes ago, PeterStarck said:

As you say I just wanted to be able to isolate each pipe run separately. I was lucky when I bought mine as the manufacturers were changing the design and I bought the old design for £4 each for a four way manifold from Screwfix.

 

Snap!

 

I bought our four way manifolds cheaply from Screwfix, too.  I've noticed that Screwfix no longer stock them, they only seem to stock the Speedfit ones, as I had a look earlier, when I first spotted this thread.