Full bore 32mm u/g stop cock

[Kes]

We're having our water supply (spring to house) relaid in 32mm mdpe. The original supply was 1980's 1" alkathene but is being rerouted due to nearby building works. We occasionally get small frogs in the pipe so can't use liners in the fittings or screw-down stopcocks, as the fatter frogs get stuck with unpleasant consequences all round. We have a 32mm brass ball valve where the supply enters the house but no other stopcocks, so all maintenance is done live. That's no real problem as the pressure isn't high, but a stopcock at the source (and possibly where it enters our garden) would be handy in future.

We've used Philmac fittings in the past with great success. However their 32mm ball valves appear to have an internal diameter - the ball - of 20mm. The internal diameter of 32mm pipe is around 24mm, so that presents a problem. I could use a 1.25" FI to FI ball valve, and then adapt the MI to mdpe fittings back to 32mm, but this is bulky, rather naff and grossly expensive (£60).

Any other idea how to resolve this? Other makes of fittings?

 

[Dan Robinson]

Where would the frogs go once they have passed the valve?


Certainly one of the more original problems to be posted.

How about increasing the pipe diameter / use reducers to take you up a couple of sizes and get a bigger valve?

 

[Kes]

Inside the house the 32 mm mdpe is 'converted' to 28 mm copper, there's a 22 mm tee off for the house, then the 28 mm goes through another normally closed ball valve and then discharges outside. I flush the pipework, and any residual frogs, through every few weeks.

It's the bigger valve that's the problem. Philmac's largest mdpe to mdpe ball valve is 32 mm, with the aforementioned 20 mm bore. Going up a size would involve the pricey option I described above.

I'm not sure that laying out £60 for a clumpy stopcock would be the best. I have a stopcock in the house, and we've managed without one outside for forty years or so.

Another alternative is a gate valve, but as an old ex-plumber I hate those things. Are they built any better these days (I mean not disintegrating and jamming shut)? I'd still have to adapt to mdpe, I guess.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Gate valves are still shyte as a rule.

Invariably, things that do a job are expensive.

Do, or do not. Pay, or pay not.

 

[muggles]

Would it not be simpler to fit a coarse, frog-proof, filter to stop the frogs getting in?

 

[Kes]

Yes, but unfortunately the collector tank is a large half-buried riveted steel cylinder on its side, with only a 6" access hole on the top. A grid over the spring entry point would soon grass/weed over and divert the flow.