Shutting off street water main question?

[Gary Swart]

There won't be any oil reach the water, and even if it did, the relatively small amount wouldn't be so diluted it wouldn't be noticable. I wouldn't suggest you use it as a condiment, but it's not deadly poison. All of that aside, since there is concern about this valve being frozen, I would join others and suggest you have the city come and turn this off. If they break it, it's there problem to fix it. If you break it, you very possibly would be held responsible not just for the valve, but for the labor. Once the valve is known to operate, then have your own key to turn it on/off when you need to.

 

[andyprius]

With regard to penetrating oil, is there no concern of contaminating the water?

A picture of the valve is above in post #3. I assumed that I need to move it in a CW direction to line up the two holes. Is that a false assumption?

Thanks,

Jerry

On alignment of holes,I can't say, I have never seen a valve like that. The penetrating oil stays on the exterior portions of the piping and valve. There is no way the oil can reach the inner portion where the water is. The main thing is to leave it for awhile after the oil (overnight) and some good tapping, but not excessive.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[andyprius]

There won't be any oil reach the water, and even if it did, the relatively small amount wouldn't be so diluted it wouldn't be noticable. I wouldn't suggest you use it as a condiment, but it's not deadly poison. All of that aside, since there is concern about this valve being frozen, I would join others and suggest you have the city come and turn this off. If they break it, it's there problem to fix it. If you break it, you very possibly would be held responsible not just for the valve, but for the labor. Once the valve is known to operate, then have your own key to turn it on/off when you need to.

I agree with Gary absolutely call the City, then you are not liable and they will show you, (or your wife).

 

[JK60]

Seems like the overwhelming consensus is for me to first call the water department and see if I can get them involved. This is what I am going to do. Thank you everybody for your very helpful replies!!!

Jerry

 

[JK60]

The Final Solution

I decided to give this a minimal effort myself before calling the city. I started out by following the recommendations in this thread. Cleaned the valve, tapped it lightly with a hammer, and over a period of two days I've squirted some penetrating oil on the valve. Then to finalize this effort I built my own curb key (below) using some remnants of 3/4" pipe and a couple of tees that I had in the house. Cut a slot in the bottom tee to fit over the valve, and there you have the final product. Worked like a charm. The valve opens and closes without any problems.

Thank you everybody again for your help with this problem!!!

Jerry

 

[Gary Swart]

Very clever! You may want to have a couple of spot welds on the tees so they won't unscrew, but other than that, it looks great.

 

[JK60]

Thank you Garry. I don't have a welder, but what I did is use Loctite high strength thread locker (red) on the threads. That hopefully will keep it from unscrewing. The other option would be just to put a 1/4-20 bolt through the tee and pipe thread. So far however it works without any problems.

 

[SteveW]

Looks great -- thanks for sharing!

How did you cut the slot? A series of holes drilled with a drill press?

Steve

 

[JK60]

Steve - Exactly as you said, a series of holes drilled on the drill press and then a little work with a file.

Jerry