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It took 3 trips to the plumbing supply in Kansas City to figure out my shutoff valve needed a $4 washer
Two Saturdays ago I decided to swap out the main shutoff valve at my place because it was dripping every time I turned it. I figured it was a 30 minute job, maybe an hour if the old solder gave me trouble. I shut the water off at the street, cut the old valve out, and soldered a new ball valve on. Turned the water back on and it leaked right at the handle stem, not the joints. I went back to the supply house on Main, the guy sold me a rebuild kit for the wrong valve, and I spent another two hours pulling it apart. Third trip back he actually looked at the photo on my phone and said oh, that's a gate valve body, you need the small rubber seat washer, four bucks. Swapped it in five minutes and it stopped dead. I spent most of a full Saturday and two evenings chasing a $4 part because I didn't take a picture the first time. Has anyone else had a fix come down to one cheap little piece you kept overlooking?
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phoenix_grant5d ago
Man, the part that gets me is how the wrong rebuild kit cost you more time than the actual valve swap. That's the real trap with old plumbing, the guy behind the counter can't help you unless he sees what you're holding, and half these supply houses have 6 different stems that all look the same on the shelf. I started keeping a ziplock bag of every old washer and stem I pull out, because the odds of finding the exact match at a big box store are pretty much zero once it's off the shelf. Bet that $4 washer would've been sitting in a bin labeled something totally unrelated too.
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