This might make me sound thick ,but is the ballcock seperate from the actual 'tap thingy' that feeds my (domestic)water tank in the loft?
The water inlet on mine is old and crusty and has a slow drip (sound like me!) and every few hours now it starts coming out of the overflow.
Q1)Is it simple to change?
Q2)What do i actually ask for in the merchants?(so at least i dont appear a complete plank)
Q3)Any helpful hints/tips greatfully appreciated.

Seperate issue,whilst in the loft to check out why the overflow was pourling water i happened to look in the ch header tank.New tank and so is 90% of the system(well,about 18 months old) and after doing some work about a year ago the system was drained and i added a litre of sentinel x100.
The surface water looks like someones sprayed expanding foam in it and the water has a thick black 'dusty cloud' for the full depth of the water.
WTF?..... should i be worried about this algae type stuff and could this also be in my ch system aswell causing troubles ahead?
 Thank in advance chaps.

[quote author=bstyle  link=1105990608/0#1 date=1105992053]It's called a part 2 ballvalve.

I dont normally take the entire valve out, I just undo the large union nut inside the cistern and screw the new valve up- making sure the fibre washer is in place. [/quote]

If the nut fits that is.  At the merchants ask for a 22mm float valve or 22mm ballcock, if yer gettin a new float too, get a copper one.  If it can come apart(the crustiness is normally hard water splashiin on it over time) you might only need to change the washer, instead of replacing the ballcock. The ballcock change is the easier job though!

Wouldnt worry about yer header tank, youve put the inhibitor in so it should be ok, if yer worried about it put a lid on the tank to stop the dust going in.

22mm, am i having a brain fart?  what sizes do you have? 28mm?  Or are we talking imperial ½,¾and1".  What size would you ask for?

yeah for a half inch ballcock, most of the time the domestic tank is 22 tho. half inch for the CH header.

no i know, i guess your right then.   Here its 22 mostly, although some are done in 15 but its not reccommended. Trowelhead, check the size of yer pipes m8! lol

Thanks for the heads up BStyle, now i wont look like a prat! rofl.

Well, except in this post.


oh and the other ones.......

oh and only for this reason, other reasons are still prattable

My advice would be to turn off the water and remove the old ballcock assembly complete, take it to the plumbers merchants and say "Give us one of these mate"

At least that way you know you're getting like for like.

no plastic sucks, brass is better in my opinion. I use copper floats too.  I'd never use a plastic ballcock in a storage tank, if there is a lot of expansion up the feed pipe or blowing over from the expansion pipe, the extra stress could just snap it, less likely with a brass one.(although unlikely in either case).
As for needing soldering, they dont, and even if they did, put a compression joint up against a soldered joint in the big freeze and the solder joint will hold every time, the compression will pop right off, plastic will just snap!


Overflows are generally 1¼", although 1½" is acceptable, and just as common.

A 15mm Ballvalve will not pose you problems at all, they are as said before very easy to fit, it would take me 5 minutes once water is off as I would just change the valve after the union nut. It is very likely that you could do the same.

BTK the overflows in England are 21.5mm or similar (depends on manufacturer) slightly less than Scotland!!
At least if the ballvalve gets stuck in the on position in Scotland it stands a good chance of not flooding the house!

[quote author=bstyle  link=1105990608/0#14 date=1106078883]

BTK the overflows in England are 21.5mm or similar (depends on manufacturer) slightly less than Scotland!!
At least if the ballvalve gets stuck in the on position in Scotland it stands a good chance of not flooding the house! [/quote]
Recently I've had to fit two overflows to cw storage tanks.  Doing a 'failed ballvalve' test has proved the solo overflow unable to cope.  Some houses have higher water pressure than others!

My own house has an Aylesbury valve rather than a ballvalve and this really fills fast so two overflows were needed again