Shallowbottom

The nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind.

Frost Free Sill Cocks

Pops has frost free sill cocks on his house, even though his house is built on a slab.  That makes it somewhat of an adventure to replace them because I know of no way to provide backup for removing the sill cock and not unscrewing some section of pipe further into the house.  I really have no idea how they are attached so this may or may not be a big issue.

Anyway, they both leak.  I can attempt repairs of the washer, etc, but I have to 1) find the right repair parts, and 2) most places I’ve read about and my personal experience both say that repaired sill cocks frequently still leak after the repair.

Eh…..oh well.  Gotta do something.  The one in the back yard doesn’t simply leak it is running.  I have it plugged with a plastic screw-on shutoff valve for now.  Looks like I’m about to learn some more handyman skills.

September 11, 2008 - Posted by shallowbottom | Life - Or Something Like It | | 2 Comments

2 Comments »

  1. Well it wasn’t too complicated to fix. The head of the bolt that holds the washer on at the far end had broken off, and the washer had finally worked its way off the remainder of the bolt. The hardest part was getting that bolt out because it was corroded pretty badly. I was fortunate to be able to work it out before I stripped all the bolt off. A new washer and bolt, and the thing was fixed.

    I managed to flush the old washer out before putting the rod back in…I was not able to fish it out.

    It’s a good thing I had a washer that would fit because I found complete replacement frost free sill cocks but none of them were exactly like or appeared to be the same length as the old one. With the device mounted in a house with a pad, the interior pipes were inside a wall, so safely unscrewing the sill cock out and replacing the entire thing was a task I really didn’t want to have to tackle because getting to the pipes for backup would have meant getting into that wall, and one maintenance task becomes about three or four. ;)

    Comment by shallowbottom | September 15, 2008 | Reply

  2. OK, I have now down both of Dad’s faucets. Both had exactly the same problem. The head of the bolt holding the washer in place on the far end of the rod controlled by the handle had broken off and the washer was no longer controlling the flow of water.

    One thing I’ve learned as a lesson on replacing these. After you remove the rod that should have the washer on the remote end, RUN THE WATER FOR 2-3 SECONDS OUT OF THE UNCONTROLLED OPENING OF THE FROSTFREE SILLCOCK! This will eject any detritus in the pipe that might cause the replacement washer and bolt not to seal. I flushed out both the worn out washer AND the head of the bolt that failed by doing this on both faucets. Without doing this, the old washer would interfere with the new washer and prevent a good seal on the remote end of the faucet after the replacement.

    Comment by shallowbottom | October 30, 2008 | Reply


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