Tip of The Week

July 19, 2008
 
This week’s tip comes from our “Turn, Turn, Turn” file.
 
If you’re at least as old as I am “Turn Turn Turn” was a great song but it just doesn’t play well in the plumbing arena.  This week I had the opportunity to help an e-mail acquaintance with a small plumbing problem.  His cut off valves under his sink were “frozen” (stuck) on and he could not turn the valve to shut it off.  We took the time to walk him through replacing the valves and then suggested that when he replaced the valves he use a “quarter-turn” valve…also known as a ¼ turn valve.
 
The advantage of the ¼ turn valve is that, as its name implies, it only requires ¼ turn to open it or to close it.  Long story short is that it is a “ball valve” but the advantage is that it is less likely to freeze up as described above and when you have to turn the water on or off, (especially if something is leaking) only ¼ turn of the valve is needed vs. several turns of a conventional cut off valve.  So when its time to replace the valves Turn Turn Turn is for the Byrds.  ¼ turn is for plumbing.
 
Thanks for visiting Ask John and Dave.com and we’ll see you on the air,
John and Dave
 

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