"Frozen" gate valves
The shut off valves on the cold water supply tubing no longer turn by hand. Is there a tool to turn it?
These tubing and fittings do not respond to a magnet, so they are brass or copper.
Comments
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loosen the bonnet and try turning. Remove the handle and use an open end wrench.
if need be a small pipe wrench.0 -
try rocking back and forth gently. if you just crank on it you are likely to break something. you still might break something no matter what you do. the screw that screws in to the gate to raise and lower it is fairy fragile, if it is stuck you could break it. you can also remove the whole bonnet and clean things up.
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Then maybe it's better to leave it as is..
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Well, I have a couple things to try but if none of them work, just leave it alone. First, put some strain on the valve handle by trying to turn it and at the same time tap the side of the valve with a hammer. This may loosen the valve and allow it to turn. Next, if you can turn off the supply water before that valve that may allow you to turn it using the same pressure and hammer as above and lastly, you could try to remove the whole valve by turning the top of the valve with a big wrench and unscrewing it. If none of these ideas work, leave it alone.
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Disassemble and grease it up or replace ..If you force it, the brass worm gear that slides the gate along the trough can break .
Tip ; Gate valves were installed with handle down so no debri collects in the trough which prevents the gate from seating..
There was an error rendering this rich post.
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Why do you wish to close this gate valve?
Is this valve controlling boiler feed water or a potable water supply??????????
The mistake made by many people is fully opening the gate valve until it stops-this is never good. The valve stem becomes stuck and will not release. It is always best to stop short of fully opening the gate valve to prevent the stem from freezing in place due to corrosion
The component parts of a "very small" gate valve are as follows;
- body
- bonnet
- gate
- stem
- globe handle
- valve stem packing-The stem packing is either a rope packing or square cut stem packing to seal the valve stem
- seat
The 125 WSP; 200 WOG; designations cast into the valve body side indicate that the valve is capable of withstanding "125 PSI Wet Steam Pressure" or "200 PSI Non Shock Cold Liquid Or Gas Applications".
The globe handle may still have the small metal circular identification tag under the screw that anchors the globe handle to the valve stem.
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does this allow the gate to be loose and vibrate with flow and wear the threads on the stem and gate?
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First make sure your main shut off is working properly. On every property/rental property I ever owned, job 1 is to shut the water off at the curb and put a good quality ball valve before and after the meter.
After that, @pecmsg has the right idea. But I would shut off the main and repair or replace the valve. Because it most likely will start leaking again when you open it back up.
You can take the valve body out, take it to a big box store and match up the closest kit of washers, which should work.
But if it were me, shut off main, drain what you need, cut copper, heat up threaded pipe, spin off valve. Spin on a new ball valve, then male npt to press and a press coupling. If it's the boiler feed, new boiler feed/backflow (I like Caleffi), ball valve on the other side. With the proper materials, isolating the feed/back flow, to flush/repair/replace is forever a breeze.
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My personal experience with gate valves involved residential use for city water control in home use and well water, single load commercial laundry washing machines using pre-manufactured bulk heads with header pipes that controlled hot and cold water feed for 20 single load washing machines per bulkhead and 8 Pellerin Milnor triple loaders and residential well water, and commercial industrial use with compressed air system feeder lines used for bag sewing machine lines using compressed air for clearing of cotton thread chaff.
I never found problems with vibration loosening the bonnet nuts so much that the valve leaked through the stem.
As long as the valve stem is packed with the correct stem packing for the size of the valve and the bonnet nut is tightened only after the stem is partially closed it never leaked.
When I worked in a powerplant as a temporary laborer they replaced absolutely every valve stem packing each gate valve no matter how large or small and painted them that years designated color to show it was changed.
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not the packing, the screw down the middle of the gate that raises and lowers the gate.
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Hello Matt,
I never found them to be frozen at all after many years of use with city water or well water.
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frozen isn't my concern, stripped from rubbing for years is my concern.
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I never found them inoperable or stalled if that is what you are referring to.
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