Watts NF8 Vacuum Break

[HayZee518]

oops

sorry, I meant tubing. the B and the N are right next to each other.

[vdotmatrix]

I looked online and found a valve very similar to the one I have.
Arrowhead #255SW
It is a 3/4 or 1/2" copper sweat type connection with a flanged outside and two places for screws to hold it in place
Sweat soldering is pretty easy to do -
you use a fine grit emery cloth to clean the inside of the fitting, apply some flux [no corrode brand] , clean about an inch outside of the tuning, apply flux about a half inch wide and shove the tubing inside the fitting. heat the fitting until the solder flows, just a few seconds, then let cool.
push the valve and tubing into the house and measure and mark where you are gonna connect to with a pencil. go back outside, remove the tubing and valve and cut the tubing.
prepare the end as before, go back into the basement, apply flux to fitting and tubing end,push together - heat the fitting and apply solder to the joint.
when its hot enough, the solder will melt and get sucked into the fitting. when it drips once remove the solder and heat and let cool.

HayZee: I have sweated a lot of copper that isn't the issue.

The water line to the faucet screwed into the outside of the wall is buried in the wall from the laundry room to that wall about 20-25 ft. if the copper is soldered to the faucet I see no way to replace that faucet. That's why I suspect that it has to screw out from the outside and then held in place by 2 screws.

The other line goes through the wall to the outside in a simialr fashion.

Tommorow I will unscrew the faucet and try to budge it with a wrench....

[vdotmatrix]

I looked online and found a valve very similar to the one I have.
Arrowhead #255SW
It is a 3/4 or 1/2" copper sweat type connection with a flanged outside and two places for screws to hold it in place
Sweat soldering is pretty easy to do -
you use a fine grit emery cloth to clean the inside of the fitting, apply some flux [no corrode brand] , clean about an inch outside of the tuning, apply flux about a half inch wide and shove the tubing inside the fitting. heat the fitting until the solder flows, just a few seconds, then let cool.
push the valve and tubing into the house and measure and mark where you are gonna connect to with a pencil. go back outside, remove the tubing and valve and cut the tubing.
prepare the end as before, go back into the basement, apply flux to fitting and tubing end,push together - heat the fitting and apply solder to the joint.
when its hot enough, the solder will melt and get sucked into the fitting. when it drips once remove the solder and heat and let cool.

I see in the first picture that he used a coupler which means probably that this thing is soldered-HOW LAME. I wonder if I can replace this thing with a screw fitting or perhaps use a shark bite 1/2" coupler....which will be easy enough.

the far side is what has me worried.....the copper has to be anchored-burried in the wall unless it isn't and when I release the fitting in the laundry the whole thing will just pull out ...how lame.

[HayZee518]

faucets

I guess what you'll have to do is shut off the feed to both branches and drain the lines through the stop n waste.
then, unsolder both lines going outside, unfasten the bibbs from the outside and see if you have any lateral movement.
maybe just pull them out from the outside enough to see how they're fastened to the tubing. if they both are sweated to the tubing, you know what you'll have to do.
if the other has a male threaded adapter, then you'll need to find a bibb with 1/2 inch female threads.
If you think there'll be a problem in fore seeable future, might I suggest you replace the couplers with sweatable brass unions.

[vdotmatrix]

I guess what you'll have to do is shut off the feed to both branches and drain the lines through the stop n waste.
then, unsolder both lines going outside, unfasten the bibbs from the outside and see if you have any lateral movement.
maybe just pull them out from the outside enough to see how they're fastened to the tubing. if they both are sweated to the tubing, you know what you'll have to do.
if the other has a male threaded adapter, then you'll need to find a bibb with 1/2 inch female threads.
If you think there'll be a problem in fore seeable future, might I suggest you replace the couplers with sweatable brass unions.

What a nightmare. Why would they do it this way? The long run has me worried. Man if the attachment point is the one area in the laundry room, the I'll have to unsolder it there and pull it out 25 feet away....

Anyway, The sweatable brass unions idea is great! I have had very good results using SHARKBITE fittings-solderless.

Thanks for your tireless assistance on this forum.

v

[vdotmatrix]

What a nightmare. Why would they do it this way? The long run has me worried. Man if the attachment point is the one area in the laundry room, the I'll have to unsolder it there and pull it out 25 feet away....

Anyway, The sweatable brass unions idea is great! I have had very good results using SHARKBITE fittings-solderless.

Thanks for your tireless assistance on this forum.

v

Just wondering if you had any ideas as to why this could happen to both faucets this year?

[HayZee518]

faucets

nothing is flawless these days. maybe the plumber got them at a bargain sale. maybe he had them in his junk box, anybody's guess.
your comment about the faucet that's 25 feet away has me worried. [laundry room]
IF that line hadn't been fully drained it may have burst inside the wall and the bubble is preventing it from being pulled out.
that is if it's fastened by a clip somewhere along its run.
you never know what's inside a sealed wall.
anyway write back on what you find.

[vdotmatrix]

nothing is flawless these days. maybe the plumber got them at a bargain sale. maybe he had them in his junk box, anybody's guess.
your comment about the faucet that's 25 feet away has me worried. [laundry room]
IF that line hadn't been fully drained it may have burst inside the wall and the bubble is preventing it from being pulled out.
that is if it's fastened by a clip somewhere along its run.
you never know what's inside a sealed wall.
anyway write back on what you find.

I replaced the one accessible faucet with an 8" freeze proof silcock. Because of the ridiculously small work space i solderd a threaded fitting to a piece of 3" half inch copper and threaded that to the end of the silcock from the wall inside. then I used push fittings (sharkbite) to reestablish the water supply. The ball valve failed in this faucet and most assuredly the other one too.. [MAYBE i left water in the valve and the water in the ball valve froze this winter and broke the valve-who knows]. I sweated the copper I had safe access to.

The other run is a supreme pain in the ass. I called the plumber who did this work in May of 2004 to see what his typical style in this type of installation was and it didn't suprise me with the results. That 25' run of 1/2 copper is burrried in the wall. The faucet is all sweated. So in order to replace the faucet I will have to cut an access panel in the %^$^%$ ceiling in the room of the new addition in the &^%&^% basement to get to the copper, cut it and pull the broken faucet out from the outside. whata pain in the ass. I will probably in stall an ugly access panel there. and of course put in a frost proof silcock since I have to go through the trouble....why would you install plumbing like this?

I can post pictures of what I did so far later...thanks