It's DIY home repair time again (plumbing)

[Black]

Helpful film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFtFfXRoVoo
Consensus per poking around various contractor and plumbing forums seems to be that Shark Bites can work well but for anything long term soldering is desired. Considering the pipe you want to access is exposed I'd probably go with a Shark Bite since it can be easily monitored and replaced if necessary.

[wurm]

Thanks. I decided to visit Lowes and see what they had for replacement parts for the gate valve. They had none. I asked about the Gator Bite ball valve and the guy was very helpful and says that he uses them quite a bit and really likes them. He showed me how they work and I decided to pick one up. At $15 it's a lot cheaper than a plumber...assuming it works. I'm going to give it a try tomorrow and I'm sure you'll hear whether it worked well (or not).

Thanks for the replies. And thanks for the YouTube link, black. I think the key is to add the word "plumbing" when searching YouTube for "Gator bite" or "sharkbite".

[OWC Jamie]

That should do the trick for ya.

I wouldn't try to eliminate a new inside gate valve even with the longest "frost proof" outdoor shut-offs.
My frost free shut off froze the first Winter after I replaced the old one that had to be 50 years old.
May be OK if you live south of Georgia to not have the inside gate valve.

[wurm]

Damn it. I just did a preliminary check and it's looks like after cutting the copper pipe just past the solder on the existing gate valve, there's not going to be enough pipe to insert the required 1"+ into each end of the new Gator Bite ball valve.

[OWC Jamie]

6 inches of pipe and a sharkbite straight coupling

[wurm]

Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of something like that. Or do I take the opportunity to buy a whole new (frost free) sillcock and attach new copper pipe long enough to reach the new Gator Bite ball valve? But the ends on the frost free sillcocks are threaded. So how does that get connected to the copper pipe? Are we back to soldering?

Maybe it's back to trying to replace a washer in the existing gate valve as 'fil mentioned in his post.

[Jimmypoo]

You're working on the wrong pipe!!

http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,1261709

[mikebw]

Just cap it off for the winter. No leaks- GUARANTEED!!

[OWC Jamie]

I'd rather have the gate valve inside and Sunday for something else.

[Bill in NC]

Forget the frost free sillcocks - your setup is the way to go, as long as you remember to drain it manually.

My frost free sillcock needed new parts after 15 years - even contacting the manufacturer I was told they didn't have them.

So I got to cut a hole in sheetrock inside to replace the entire sillcock.

Would have been a lot easier with a separate valve inside an a standard faucet on the outside wall.