What good is a valve that won’t work?

Question: I woke up with so much energy one Saturday morning that I decided to change out the crummy old faucet on my bathroom sink. Big mistake! I found a really nice new fixture at the hardware store, but when I got home I couldn’t get the little valve thingies under the sink to shut off the water. Before long, I had broken off the handles and created a big mess. What are those valve things, and why don’t they work when they need to?

Elliot

Steve’s reply: Those meek-looking little valves can be real trouble makers. They’re called angle stops and we replace several hundred a year. Their job (in theory) is to be handily available to shut off water to the fixture so that the fixture can be repaired or replaced without having to shut off water to the entire home. As you’re painfully aware, if not properly maintained they transform quickly from being handy to being a major handicap.

Fortunately, preventive care is simple. Once a year, fully operate the valves to the closed position once or twice. When you’re done, fully open it once more before closing it down _ turn. Moving these valves sometimes releases loose sand or minerals into the line, so remove and clean the faucet aerator as well.

If the angle stop has been ignored a long time, it may be frozen in place. If this is the case, I recommend you replace it. Trying to force it to work will just cause more leaks to occur or handles to break off, as you discovered. Replacing a frozen angle stop requires turning off the main water supply, removing the faulty part and taking it to the local hardware store for a replacement. Make sure you get a part that has the same configuration as the original. That way everything should bolt back up easily. It’s a good idea to also replace the water lines that lead from the angle stop to the sink, toilet or whatever at this time too!

Good luck!

Steve Spratt is CEO of Home Preservation Services Inc. Click here to contact him.