What's New In Plumbing?
You May Not Care, But Know!
As a General Contractor in Sacramento, I get to see trends come and go over time. When it comes to the field of construction and building materials there is always trends that change how things appear and how they work. I’m sure we can remember when the single handle faucet first came out. What a cool idea! It looked sleek and the parts were fewer. No longer did we need a two handle system.
What about use of the new fluorescent bulbs that are energy efficient? I don’t think that Home Depot even sells the incandescent bulbs anymore. Of course, Granite counters are the new norm when it comes to counters. We could go on and on with all the changes. But this is one that you may not have noticed.
The angle stops, that shutoff valve under your sink and toilet, has new design that has some merit. Up until now the angle stop required rotating the handle several rotations before it could be fully closed. This may be a problem when you are experiencing a lot of water gushing from a plumbing fixture. The new design is just a quarter turn to fully open or fully close the valve. If you are familiar with a ball valve, it is the same principle.
The other benefit is that it has fewer parts that can fail. The older valve has a few rubber gaskets that can wear out and many threaded pieces that can require maintenance. The new angle stop has a limited range of movement so there is less wear and less chance of leaking. In an emergency it can be turned off by hand in a second. The new valve costs about a dollar more than the multi-turn model.
You may not really care about all this but know that it is available if you get to the point of needing an angle stop replaced – they don’t function correctly forever. Whether you are replacing this valve yourself or hiring a professional to repair the plumbing, consider making this change.
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