HOME HERO
Appliance & Fixture
Shut-offs
Test All Sink, Toilet, and Large Appliance Shut-Offs
There are two types of water fixtures and appliances in your home. Those that leak and those that will someday leak. With this in mind, it is critical that every fixture and appliance in your home that uses water have a dedicated shut-off valve. This will allow you to isolate the failing fixture or appliance, without shutting off the water to your entire home.
You may recognize the multi-turn shut-off show here. However over time the rubber gaskets in this shut-off break down and the device is no longer able to fully shut off the water and may start leaking in your sink cabinet. These shut-offs will also seize in place after years of disuse.
We will discuss two approaches to dealing with seized and leaking shut-offs:
Multi-turn shut-off from 60 years ago
Hire a professional plumber
The Optimal Approach
Try to close all your toilet, sink, and appliance shut-offs. If they are seized in place, DO NOT force them. Turning a seized shut-off may cause it to start leaking. This is a leak that you can stop only by shutting off the water to YOUR WHOLE HOUSE. To avoid this inconvenience, hire a plumber to replace seized shut-offs with modern quarter-turn shutoffs.
If your shut-offs do close, shut them completely then open the sink faucet to see if they actually turn off the water completely or if the sink continuously drips. For toilets you will need to close the water shut-off, flush the toilet twice to empty the upper tank, then unscrew the hose from the shut-off valve. You will also need to disconnect appliance hoses to see if the shut-offs completely turn off the water. The water in the hose will come out when you disconnect, so be ready with a towel and a bowl to catch the water.
Home Hero recommends you hire a licensed plumber to replace your seized or leaking sink, toilet, or appliance shut-off valves. However this video gives a great explanation of the process.
Thank you to Home Repair Tutor for making this excellent video
The pros call these “add-on stops”
The Minimum Viable Approach
You don’t have time to monkey around testing every shut-off in your house. You are BUSY! OR you are planning a significant renovation in the future and you need an easy short-term solution in the meantime.
You still need to test the shut-offs to your dishwasher, refrigerator, clothes washer, water heater, etc… However, you can skip testing the sinks and toilets.
Go to your local plumbing supply store and ask for 2 quarter-turn ball-valve “add-on stops” compatible with standard sink and toilet hoses. Store these in your home where all adults know where they are and can access them if they discover a seized or failing shut-off. If a retrofit “add-on stop” is used, go back to the plumbing supply store to buy more so you always have two available to be installed.
Downsides to the Minimum Viable approach:
The pros call these “add-on stops”
- All adults in your home must know how to install a retrofit “add-on stop”
- You must keep track of where the retrofit “add-on stops” are in your home for years and remember to replace them as they are used.
Talk to us
Have any questions? We are always open to talk about your home and how we can help you.