Are quarter turn angle stop valves still preferred/recommended?

[Brian R]

I'm looking at replacing a frequently clogging toilet and the plumber I'm working with added replacing the existing quarter-turn angle stop valve in his estimate.

I'd always heard I should get rid of multi-turn angle stops and replace them with quarter-turn because multi-turn compression valves are known to fail/freeze whereas quarter-turn are much more reliable. So I am confused as to why he wants to replace the existing quarter-turn valve.

Is it standard practice to replace older valves during a toilet replacement just because there's so much more room to work with the toilet out? I imagine that even quarter-turn stops have a service lifetime. Also, I'm in southern California with extremely hard water - so that's not doing me any favors.

To be honest, I'm not even sure why I'm asking other than the plumber didn't mention this when he was here and it only showed up later on the estimate.

 

[WorthFlorida]

1/4 turn stop valves are essentially a ball valve. Far better service and less prone to failure. For standard stop valves it's the stem that will fail. Either the packing fails or the seat washer fails. Most stems are plastic (nylon?) and are poorly made. I never had one last long as far as from the new homes I've own (builders grade). Whenever I changed out a faucet or had to turn one of these valves off, they never would seal again and always leaked. When they fail you replace the entire valve. If you use a standard screw valve they'll last forever if you never have to turn them off. It really the preference of the plumber.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jeff H Young]

A lot of plumbers just change it out as standard practice, he gave you one price do it all . Some plumbers automatically change it.

 

[Helper Dave]

There are some quarter-turn valves that are cheapy, and and if the handle seems like it's brittle plastic, and going to snap, I could understand changing it.

Otherwise, you could save yourself $10, and just tell him to leave it.

 

[Jeff H Young]

In California the angle stop material and labor isn't 10 dollars. something to think about. If plumber comes out and does all the work and doesn't comeback for 10 or 12 years that's good for customer if he comes back to change an anglestop in 2 years it's good for the plumber. So that's the justification to do a bit more than the bare minimum. The plumber will say he is trying to save you money the cheapskate will say he is just trying to drive the bill up. In the end you pay your money and take the chances you want if your anglestop is a year old why change it? If its 10 years old why change it? Or why not?
I guess the 1/4 turns are better there are junky ones too though. no packing nut to tighten

 

[Brian R]

Thank you for the feedback, everyone.

 

[Terry]

I replaced an old multi-turn on a 60's home today. This one was a IP stop. Always a little scary worrying how that's going to go. I wanted to start this in the morning with plenty of light outside, for finding the water meter and the parts in the van. And the time in cause things went down hill on me.

 

[John Gayewski]

I'm guessing he's figuring it's broke. He'll have to shut the water off and replace it anyway. So instead of telling you it'll cost x amount (without changing the stop) and then coming back later and saying "yeah well now its gonna be more money". He'll be able to either tell you it's less money. Or be covered because he went with the most likely scenario, that it's not working properly.

Sometimes as a matter of practice we only do things a certain way. Due to experience we know its better than something that would be considered the minimum. If you don't want to pay for it to be done the way we know is better, than you can find another plumber. I'm sure there are plenty who will install things in a way that they know isn't great.

 

[Jadnashua]

Like many products out there, they aren't all created equal. Some valves are more robust than others, regardless of their basic design (like 1/4-turn or multi-turn ones). one with a valve seat and washer tends to have problems with the washer after time and fail to be able to be closed off, and the packing can dry out, shrink, and leak when you try to use it. I'm not a big fan of one with a plastic stem, but they are less expensive.