Stuck water taps

4589roger

Expecting a new washing machine tomorrow. Discovered the inlet hose taps were stuck. Succeeded in freeing the hot one, but not the cold. Then found the main house cutout tap was solidly stuck.

Planning to transfer the cold one to the new machine by taping it into a kink and running the tap to reduce pressure. Seemed to work OK when I practised. But should I leave things in this state after the machine is installed? ie What are peoples' views of the risks?

How much would a plumber charge to fix the main house cutoff tap?

Can you turn the cutoff in the street yourself?

Thanks Rog

ormus

yes you can turn off the water in the street. its for emergencies.
changing the main stopcock is an emergency.

you can expect to pay 100-200 quid for a plumber.

keystone

You won't need a hot feed for your new WM.

You won't reduce the pressure all you'll do us reduce the flow rate and I'm not sure why you would want to reduce it anyway. If you do don't open the tap quite as far. Taping the pipe in the way you suggest is mickey-mouse in the extreme.

All stopcocks will appear to have seized up if they aren't operated regularly. It may not be completely seized. Maybe you need to try a bit harder with a bit of extra leverage rather than just trying to close it by hand but not to the extent that you break it.

Cheers

4589roger

Kinking the hose was just to reduce the flow while I was switching it to the new WM. Worked fine.

Tried hard with main house cutoff. Heating casing with hot air gun, tapping, as much leverage as I dare. No luck.

Thanks for the advice