pasadena_commut
Well-Known Member
In front of our house there are set of 3 irrigation valves with the same type of brass body. All of these leak, no two in exactly the same way. They look more or less like this Champion CL466-100-C-2T, but are nearly 60 years old:
It is hard to get a picture from the side on the actual units because there is a rose bush on one side and another big solid bush on the other.
The inlet side starts with vertical steel pipe coming out of the ground, then some sort of adapter that screws into the bottom. The outlet side has some sort of PVC adapter glued onto a PVC pipe that goes into the ground, and the top of that adapter is held to the body with the nut.
Two of them have had the flying saucer like valve part replaced with a plastic controller.
The two on the left as I face them were both leaking from the top of the anti-siphon. Bought 3 rebuild kits and unscrewed the "lids". Unfortunately the saucer on top of one prevented the lid from coming all the way off. The two which were leaking both had the thin gasket material to seal the lid, the one which wasn't leaking had a big black washer. Since the rubber seems to have held up better than the gasket, and there was a washer of that size in the kit, the two of them where the lid would come all the way off were rebuilt with the rubber washer. Murphy dictates that one of the two blown gaskets was on the unit where the lid wouldn't come off. I didn't want to shut off the water, so for now that one was closed up as best as possible and screwed back together. Of course, it leaks, a lot.
With the anti-siphon fixed on the one on the middle I see now that it is also leaking from both the top and the bottom of the nut visible in the picture at the outlet. I'm guessing that there is a washer or gasket of some sort between the top of the adapter and the bottom of the brass body.
I don't see how I'm going to be able to replace that though without tearing pretty much everything out. If the nut is unscrewed that should provide access to the side of the junction, but that may not be enough to repair the washer/gasket. If the adapter goes flush against the brass body it might be possible to pry the unit up enough to scrape out the washer/gasket and replace it. If either the body or the adapter extends through the washer/gasket though, that won't work. (Also the other side is steel, it isn't going to move much.)
What is the usual way to go about this? I'm thinking maybe cut the PVC outlet pipe (it is either 3/4 or 1", I have not measured) in two places, below the nut. Remove that segment. Loosen the nut then drop out the adapter with the remaining stub of pipe. Reassemble with a similar adapter, bit of pipe, and some sort of slip junction to the bit of outlet pipe sticking out of the ground?
Or is there a way to seal around that nut with some sort of magic tape? It is only under pressure 10-20 minutes a week, and if it does start to leak, it won't be any worse than what we have now.
Finally, the two replacement valves both leak from where they are screwed into the brass body. I'm hoping that is because they were put on without any teflon tape or dope (I don't see any), so that wrapping/coating them and then screwing them back in will resolve that. The original flying saucer valve doesn't leak, but it has to come off anyway to rebuild that antisiphon, so it might when it goes back together.
It is hard to get a picture from the side on the actual units because there is a rose bush on one side and another big solid bush on the other.
The inlet side starts with vertical steel pipe coming out of the ground, then some sort of adapter that screws into the bottom. The outlet side has some sort of PVC adapter glued onto a PVC pipe that goes into the ground, and the top of that adapter is held to the body with the nut.
Two of them have had the flying saucer like valve part replaced with a plastic controller.
The two on the left as I face them were both leaking from the top of the anti-siphon. Bought 3 rebuild kits and unscrewed the "lids". Unfortunately the saucer on top of one prevented the lid from coming all the way off. The two which were leaking both had the thin gasket material to seal the lid, the one which wasn't leaking had a big black washer. Since the rubber seems to have held up better than the gasket, and there was a washer of that size in the kit, the two of them where the lid would come all the way off were rebuilt with the rubber washer. Murphy dictates that one of the two blown gaskets was on the unit where the lid wouldn't come off. I didn't want to shut off the water, so for now that one was closed up as best as possible and screwed back together. Of course, it leaks, a lot.
With the anti-siphon fixed on the one on the middle I see now that it is also leaking from both the top and the bottom of the nut visible in the picture at the outlet. I'm guessing that there is a washer or gasket of some sort between the top of the adapter and the bottom of the brass body.
I don't see how I'm going to be able to replace that though without tearing pretty much everything out. If the nut is unscrewed that should provide access to the side of the junction, but that may not be enough to repair the washer/gasket. If the adapter goes flush against the brass body it might be possible to pry the unit up enough to scrape out the washer/gasket and replace it. If either the body or the adapter extends through the washer/gasket though, that won't work. (Also the other side is steel, it isn't going to move much.)
What is the usual way to go about this? I'm thinking maybe cut the PVC outlet pipe (it is either 3/4 or 1", I have not measured) in two places, below the nut. Remove that segment. Loosen the nut then drop out the adapter with the remaining stub of pipe. Reassemble with a similar adapter, bit of pipe, and some sort of slip junction to the bit of outlet pipe sticking out of the ground?
Or is there a way to seal around that nut with some sort of magic tape? It is only under pressure 10-20 minutes a week, and if it does start to leak, it won't be any worse than what we have now.
Finally, the two replacement valves both leak from where they are screwed into the brass body. I'm hoping that is because they were put on without any teflon tape or dope (I don't see any), so that wrapping/coating them and then screwing them back in will resolve that. The original flying saucer valve doesn't leak, but it has to come off anyway to rebuild that antisiphon, so it might when it goes back together.