Good afternoon. I've noticed a few issues with some slow leak shutoff valves in my home and I'm looking for tips on troubleshooting and narrowing down the cause and what can be done to resolve them. House was built in early 1960s but the shutoff valves are less than 15 years old.
I'll focus on one valve for now. In one of my 2nd floor bathrooms the hot water 1/4 turn shutoff valve allows for a steady drip at the faucet when the shutoff valve is fully closed and the hot faucet handle is open. I don't believe this is caused by the cold line pressure since I can turn off the 1/4 turn cold line and open only the cold faucet handle and nothing drips. For the hot water line I figured it was just a matter of the shutoff valve being old and needing to be replaced. With the help of YouTube I taught myself how to solder copper pipe. I bought a new 1/2" sweat inlet to 3/8" compression outlet quarter turn (BrassCraft KTR19X C1) shutoff valve. I heated up the old valve and slipped it off. I ran my pipe cleaner tool over the outside of the 1/2" line coming from the wall, applied flux to the outside of the copper pipe as well as the inside of the shutoff valve. I slipped it on and heated it up and soldered all the way around. After letting it cool down for about 20 minutes I hooked the line to the faucet up, turned the new valve to off, turned the hot water line on, and verified there were no leaks. I could open the faucet line and get hot water through it as expected. However when I tried to verify that there was no leak with the valve off and the faucet open I found that there STILL was a leak. I know anything is possible and it's possible I just got a dud shutoff valve with the exact same issue as the old one. But I want to check here to see if there are other things I can troubleshoot before going through another soldering session. There are 6 people in the house and it's hard to find time to dedicate to shutting the hot water line off that doesn't interfere with anyone else.
Any help or tips are appreciated. Thank you.
-Micah
I'll focus on one valve for now. In one of my 2nd floor bathrooms the hot water 1/4 turn shutoff valve allows for a steady drip at the faucet when the shutoff valve is fully closed and the hot faucet handle is open. I don't believe this is caused by the cold line pressure since I can turn off the 1/4 turn cold line and open only the cold faucet handle and nothing drips. For the hot water line I figured it was just a matter of the shutoff valve being old and needing to be replaced. With the help of YouTube I taught myself how to solder copper pipe. I bought a new 1/2" sweat inlet to 3/8" compression outlet quarter turn (BrassCraft KTR19X C1) shutoff valve. I heated up the old valve and slipped it off. I ran my pipe cleaner tool over the outside of the 1/2" line coming from the wall, applied flux to the outside of the copper pipe as well as the inside of the shutoff valve. I slipped it on and heated it up and soldered all the way around. After letting it cool down for about 20 minutes I hooked the line to the faucet up, turned the new valve to off, turned the hot water line on, and verified there were no leaks. I could open the faucet line and get hot water through it as expected. However when I tried to verify that there was no leak with the valve off and the faucet open I found that there STILL was a leak. I know anything is possible and it's possible I just got a dud shutoff valve with the exact same issue as the old one. But I want to check here to see if there are other things I can troubleshoot before going through another soldering session. There are 6 people in the house and it's hard to find time to dedicate to shutting the hot water line off that doesn't interfere with anyone else.
Any help or tips are appreciated. Thank you.
-Micah
