Valve Stem Leak. Should I be worried?

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Marty62

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Hey, guys.

I live in a condo complex (8 attached townhouses) and I'm renovating our basement. I noticed, at the water shutoff, that the base of the shutoff valve is wet. This valve taps off of a pipe that feeds all of the condo units. It never drops a drip, but if I wipe it away, the semi drip reforms.

Should I be worried about this?
 

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Reach4

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No.

This is not a sign that the valve will start spewing water. The drip could go faster with time.

I suspect, based on the deposits, the water is coming from the packing under the packing nut. If it were up to you to fix it, we could tell you how. I recently fixed my packing on my incoming water after the my well pressure tank. Here is a drawing with the packing are colored yellow. Not that if the water flow is as shown, the valve could be closed, the handle [6] removed (red in your photo), and the packing nut [9] could be removed. The packing could be replaced without having the water shut off before. I don't know how consistently plumbers put the flow that way vs the other way. I am not a plumber. I shut off the water before attempting to replace my packing.

Often just a fraction of a turn tighter on the packing nut is all you need.

Valve_cross-section.PNG
 
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Jadziedzic

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You may want to also have an electrician look at that corroded grounding/bonding wire connection next to the valve; losing continuity there could cause issues with your electrical system.
 

Jadnashua

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All it may take is a few degrees of motion on the packing nut. If it is really tight, that might be an issue. If you can turn the handle easily now, there's enough 'room' to compress the packing a little. If the handle is already really tight (it might be initially if it hasn't been moved in years, talking about after), then it could be a problem.
 

Dj2

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I believe that a shut off valve should always operate perfectly (easy on and off hand operation), should not leak and also look clean and rust free. Otherwise, replace it.

Except, here we have a condo complex, so who is responsible for the MAIN SHUT OFF VALVE? If it's not you, don't do anything without approval of the board or the other owners.
 

Craigpump

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I believe that a shut off valve should always operate perfectly (easy on and off hand operation), should not leak and also look clean and rust free. Otherwise, replace it.

Except, here we have a condo complex, so who is responsible for the MAIN SHUT OFF VALVE? If it's not you, don't do anything without approval of the board or the other owners.


Make someone else pay for the repairs and if there's an issue down the road it's on them, not you.
 

Marty62

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Good advice, guys. I'm assuming if this was determined to need replacing, the condo board should pay for it. But they're cheap and slow (it took them a YEAR to schedule step replacements when cracks appeared, and then the TWO MAN CREW they hired took over 3 months to replace 8 stoops). And, in order to replace it, the water would have to be shutoff to about 8 households. I would NOT be popular!

And, of course, the selfish reason is that anything beyond "leave it" or "tighten it" means my reno is going to get kicked back another few months. We've already hit so many snags like this, I'm feeling like I'm just going to risk leaving it. The valve does work (we've used it a few times) and turns without too much trouble.

I really appreciate all the answers, though. You guys are the best!

Marty
 
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