I am going to replace the water shut-off valve to my house. I already ordered a ball valve with 1 inch inner diameter inlet and outlet with compression fittings. After I ordered it, I noticed it was standard port. Should I have ordered a full port ball valve? If so, I can easily return or exchange it.

Also, I attached a photo of the city meter main shut-off valve. Those two large nuts are for valves I believe. Which one is for shutting off the water and which way do I turn the nut to shut-off the water?

The city has a free turn off the valve/turn on the valve service. But it would be nice for me to know how to turn it off if there was ever a water leak emergency. This is not urgent. I plan doing this in month or so.

 

The two large nuts are where the meter connects to the water line. The shutoff valve is on the top, right hand side and has an arrow on it. Right now it is in the open/on position. If you rotate it so the two locking rings align the water will be turned off.

 

Ahh.......ok. So if I am understanding correctly, the valve would be shut-off if the locking ring holes are aligned with the inlet pipe? And so the arrow would be vertical and pointing upward? What tool would I use to shut it off................just a wrench on that arrow tab?

Or is there a special tool for the locking ring holes?

Any thoughts on whether I should use a standard or full port ball valve for the house shut-off valve?

 

The shutoff on the meter is the valve in the top right. When rotated so the rings align the water is off and the city can install a lock to prevent stealing water.

The rotation axis for the valve is vertical so the arrow never points up or down. It points in the direction of flow.

You can use whatever wrenches fit. There is a special water meter wrench that is handy when they are buried 3 feet underground. Since yours is at the surface a Crescent wrench on the flats of the valve then another wrench to turn it is all you need.

A full port ball valve is preferred.

 

When the two holes align, it allows the water company to add a padlock to keep the water shut off if you don't pay your bill. So aligning the two holes is OFF for that valve.

There are special Water Shutoff Keys to turn that off if it's a few feet underground. But in your case, a crescent wrench would work just fine.

I wouldn't worry about whether you use a full port ball valve or not. All ball valves have better flow than a gate or globe valves. I would suggest your valve have a drain plug on it though to help draining the system if needed, unless there's some other way to easily drain from the lowest point in the piping.

 

Ok. Let's see if I understand. So you move the locking hole tabs in the same way as the hands of a clock till the holes align?

 

In many meters you can rotate the valve in either direction.

 

Ok. Very good. Thanks guys.
I'm going to return the standard port valve for a full port ball valve.

 

When I replace this ball valve, I am going to take the opportunity to replace some other valves in the house. For example, I should replace the clothes washing machine gate valves also. These are very old.

 

You can replace any of them you want but if not leaking then it's just preventative maintenance!

 

You should have a main shutoff valve when the pipe enters the house. There should be little or no need to shut off at the meter itself. (OK, I noticed you're in Arizona, so the need inside the house is not important.) Adding isolation valves to various locations will allow water service to house in different areas when need to work on or replace a valve. For instance, isolate the bathroom from the kitchen or the washing machine. The difference from standard port to full will be neglectable. I doubt you'll see a difference.

 

Ahh.....I almost missed your posts Norm and Marq. Thanks.

I figured on replacing the clothes washer hot and cold gate valves because those are 26 years old and I doubt those would fully close now. Those look like simple screw on type.

Somebody said they doubted the ball valve with compression fittings would work for the water shut-off location because of the inline configuration of the pipe. Something about having to pull the pipe ends away to insert the ball valve inline. Is that true?

 

Well, yes. The ends of the pipe must be long or short enough to properly engage the valve fitting be it compression or Sharkbite, or threaded.

 

It looks like soldering in the shut off valve with two non-recessed couplings makes the most sense for
my lack of experience. This means I will need to learn and practice sweating pipes.

 

Not hard. take a couple of scrap pieces of copper pipe and fittings. Don't worry about being neat. A few drips of solder will not be a problem.
Using fine sandpaper or a battery brush clean both the male and female ends of the pipe and fittings. Smear some flux on both ends. Fit pieces together. Heat the fitting to an almost cheery red (too hot is not good). Take the end of the solder and just touch the seam where the two pieces meet. It flows into the connection. And you're done. DO NOT try to cool it with water or a rag. Let it cool naturally.
When you go to actually solder the real thing and you have other fitting within very close proximity, you can wrap a wet rag around those fitting to prevent them from getting loose from the heat.

 

Thanks Norm and friends!

I just now saw Norm's response. I still have not done this yet because I want to complete it with a couple other repairs later this month, and get it all done while on vacation from work.

By the way, will the city water department know when I turn off the city shut-off valve to do my plumbing repairs? And could I get in trouble?

 

If at you meter, no it should not matter.
If, however, you were to shutoff the valve from the street using a special key, that is in most cases illegal.
Those special keys are available, and my son-in-law did in fact purchase one and shut off the water at street (front lawn level) and got away with it.
I'd like to do it also but I'm on a corner and town trucks typically pass by my house several times a week. My luck, I'd get caught.

 

The city doesn't do this service on the weekend unless you want to pay an exorbitant fee. Their schedule for doing this service is very inconvenient and really, unacceptable if you ask me.

Plumbers around here turn the city shut-off valves on and off all the time when doing residential repairs.

 

I am going to do this later this month. I broke my finger in December and want to make sure it's fully healed.