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 three 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 Adequate Approach
Try to close all your toilet, sink, and appliance shut-offs as described in the “Optimal Approach” above. However instead of hiring a plumber, go to your local plumbing supply store and ask for quarter-turn ball-valve “add-on stops” for all your seized and leaking existing shut-offs. “Leaking” means that it does not completely shut off the water when in the closed position. Any shut-offs that are leaking into your sink cabinet or onto the floor when the toilet or sink hose is attached must be replaced by a licensed plumber
Once you have purchased your retrofit “add-on stops” you can:
- Shut off the water to your home at the water main
- Open a sink on the lowest floor of your home to drain the pipes
- Place bowl under sink or toilet hose
- Unscrew the sink or toilet hose
- Screw the “add-on stop” to existing bad shut-off
- Screw the toilet or sink hose to the retrofit “add-on stop”.
See video: IN DEVELOPMENT
Downsides to the Adequate approach:
- Other people in your home may be more familiar with the old-fashioned multi-turn valves. If rushing to stop an active water leak, these other people may grab your seized multi-turn shut-off and force it to close. This may cause the rubber seals inside the old shut-off to rupture and for water to start leaking out of the shut-off itself. The only way to stop this leak would be to shut off the water to your entire home, then call a plumber to cut off and replace the failed shut-off.
- If you are planning to sell your home in the next few years, this DIY option is not a good idea. Your potential homebuyer’s home inspector will likely call out the retrofit “add-on stops” on their home inspection report and your potential homebuyer will expect you to reduce your sale price by the cost of replacement.
- Lastly, your old crummy shut-offs are still in place. 99% of the time, these will only start leaking when someone tries to turn them, causing the internal rubber gaskets to rupture. However, it is theoretically possible that a leak could develop even without anyone touching them.
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. All adults should watch the instructional video above showing how to install a retrofit “add-on” stop. If a retrofit “add-on stop” is used, go back to the plumbing supply store and 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 the Downsides from the Adequate Approach above
- 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.
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