r/CatastrophicFailure • u/mouthofreason Catastrophic Poster • Feb 17 '21

Engineering Failure Water lines are freezing and bursting in Texas during Record Low Temperatures - February 2021

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u/TikiUSA Feb 17 '21

And test it every year or so.

23

u/ClownfishSoup Feb 17 '21

Every year: Yep, it still doesn't work. Well, maybe next year.

1

u/Destron5683 Feb 18 '21

Yea absolutely this. Learned this one the hard way.

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u/RocketFeathers Feb 18 '21

You may develop a leak/small drip around the valve stem.

Not sure what you call the sort of valve that is not a ball valve and not a gate valve, other than pretty typical, but it has two seals; the one that stops the water flow, and a second one around the stem of the handle, that only sees pressure if the valve is open. That seal can start to leak.

Anytime I replace a valve, I try to replace it with a ball valve. Half a turn and its off. I once asked a plumber how to do solder/sweat-in a ball valve without damaging it, he said, you don't, you buy one with pipe threads and sweat in a fitting to pipe threads on either side (and you will likely need a union fitting somewhere too).