We have a 2004 double wide. I recently discovered that the interior water shutoff valve won't close. It moves maybe 1/8 of a turn than jams up, it feels very gritty so I suspect its got some junk built up in it. I'd like to replace it with something a bit more robust, but there isn't a lot of room to work with, in the attached pic the inside space is 5.25" wide and it's 3/4 PVC.

Any suggestions?

 

I would get a new ball valve, two short nibblets of pipe and two 90 degree fittings and glue them together like your existing valve. Turn off the water supply. Cut off your existing valve right below the fittings. Then it looks like you'll have enough room to just drop the new valve assembly down on top of the pipes.

 

Thanks for the reply. I had that part figured out but those valves are like 2 or 3 bucks, I was looking for something less plasticy and better quality. May not be possible due to the space limitations.

 

Dave -

I’m pretty sure that pipe is CPVC and not PVC. CPVC has the yellow stripe and optionally (but usually I think) comes in copper tube sizes (CTS). I don’t think PVC is allowed for water supply in the house – but CPVC is allowed. That pipe probably is CPVC copper tube size which means if it’s a 3/4 pipe the O.D. will measure 7/8 (the O.D. in CTS is 1/8 larger than the nominal pipe size).

Just though I’d mention that because you won’t be able to use any kind of PVC fittings there. It seems to me that space is so small that the only way you could do it is as Pilot Dane suggests. I think those 3/4 CPVC ball valves like you have in there now are only about 3 inches long. Anything longer won’t fit in there.

(i guess getting rid of that box and covering with some nice looking door might be an option- not sure)

(I guess getting rid of that box is another option, covering with some kind of nice looking door or something like that ....maybe? lol)

You can get all kinds of Sharkbite fittings and valves that can push right on to CPVC and they are of a good quality, but …. you still don’t have the room. You could use elbows and come out of the box to give you room and then come down the wall with a shutoff on the vertical and then turn back up into the box and continue. You could use Sharkbites to do all of that. That sure would be a kludge and might look funny, but if it is all hidden maybe it would be acceptable.

I’ve modified my CPVC somewhat like Pilot Dane suggests, and that is the most straight forward way, but each time you cut out CPVC fittings(elbows etc.) you lose a little pipe. The next time you might not be able to replace the valve the same way – not enough pipe exposed.

They sure made that space good looking and compact – but a pain in the butt to fix.

 

Thanks very much for the reply zoesdad, some useful info! The constant shortening of the pipe was a thought as well, but it doesn't look like I have much of a choice. This one is 14 years old so maybe if I exercise the new one every few months it won't get seized up. I guess I'll just hunt down a CPVC valve and a couple elbows, I think the previous owners left some pipe in the shed.

 

Exercising that periodically sounds like a good idea. Maybe you will be just fine with a new valve then.

(my last post with the "I guess... sentences are funny. Thought I put one at the end. didn't know they were going in the middle of the text. wondered where it disappeared to - lol). But your idea and Pilot Dane's sounds better than replacing the box.)

 

Well, I had my order all cued up at Amazon, then took another look at the pic above and noticed those are not normal 90 degree elbows, the part that connects at the valve is much shorter than the part that connects to the pipe, the CPVC elbows I found won't work. Nothing simple is ever easy...

 

Are you sure you can't wriggle and jiggle, twist and turn that valve with water running through it to free it up? Not too much force to break it but just back and forth many times to see if it will open more until it clears. It looks like it is probably a ball valve so not too complicated inside.

Maybe increase the supply pressure to help clear it out.

 

I tried cycling and forcing it as much as I'm comfortable with. As I can't currently get to the main shutoff under our mobile home due to snow I'm not going to push my luck and risk breaking the valve right now. Can't really increase the pressure, I get what the town gives me. I've already decided I'm likely going to replace it once the snow melts, I just need to find the elbows I need, found everything else.

 

Problem solved! It seems there is a thing called a street elbow, who knew? Looks like it's what is in use here.

 

Dave –

I think you are right about the street elbows. One thing that may throw you for a loop if you haven’t done much assembly with PVC or CPVC is the dry fitting. When you take the pieces and dry fit them together you may see that they don’t fully seat. But what happens is that when you use the solvent on them they get soft and then the pipes seat farther into the fitting as you push. Actually, in fact, if the pipe fully seats in the fitting when dry you are not supposed to use the fitting – it’s too loose.

Just thought I’d mention that because as you can see those street elbows have to fully seat in the valve ends or the assembly won’t fit in the box and you might get freaked out when you dry fit.

(One end of the street elbow is actually the same O.D. as the CPVC pipe. So pushing the street elbow into the valve end is just like pushing a pipe into the valve end).

 

Plastic ball valves are notorious for seizing and I strongly advise you to re-do the piping so that you can use a standard brass (threaded port) ball valve. Use a threaded union as well OR SharkBite fittings to allow for future replacement.

Or, use a "true-union" plastic valve so it can easily be replaced in the future. https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/va...rue-union.html (I have no personal connection to this company, never even used them. The link is only an example of the type valve I would use if staying with plastic.)