External stopc*ck broken...

bluep

I have a water stopc*ck in my garden that is separate from the one in the house. It's down a short plastic drainpipe in the patio bricks (covered with a little mini hinged man hole cover) and then looks like a T shape (with the top of the T visible looking down the pipe). I usually use a long main stopc*ck key to turn it on when I want to use the hosepipe. Except today when I turned it, it went round and round but didn't turn the water on - like the thread was just clicking in and out. It's a real pain as it's very sunny and all my plants are drying up! When I reach my hand down the drain (bravery woman award please due to lots of dry leaves and spiders..), the actual T bit isn't loose or off and I can't turn it with my hand. Just confused as to what's gone wrong and how to fix it. Is this something I'm going to need a plumber for and can it be replaced without having to dig up the drain pipe for access? Any suggestions?

Ruski

If it's a brass taphead then it could be that the 'tap' part has had the square spline rounded off and the 'handle' is spinning about the rounded off spline.

Access is obviously going to be an issue - someone MAY be able to change the valve head as one, without having to replace the whole tap - but from your description is unlikely they'll have the room to do that.

Any piccies??

HTH

Russ

bluep

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bluep

bluep

Thanks for the response - heres some pics. The pipe is about the length of my arm up to the elbow ie I can grip the handle and turn it. It does feel like a square isnt quite gripping and then juddering round to the next rotation of that makes sense. I cant take the blue handle off though. Would this be something a normal plumber would look at or would it have to be builders who do external ground works?

Le_Kirk

Whoever does the replacement is going to be faced with the same problem, access and will probably have to dig up either side of that pipe. will the pipe pull out to give a bit more room? I am surprised there is not a screw in top of the blue handle because something must fix it to the valve. Is there a lift out flap on top of the handle under which is a screw? If no screw, it is relying on friction so maybe you (or someone strong) can just pull it off, perhaps making up some sort of tool to get under the handle and extend it up outside of the pipe to get a better grip.

bluep

There must be a way of getting the handle off because once when I was away it came off when my dad was watering the garden for me and water gushed everywhere so he had to lie down in it to get his hand down the pipe to screw it back on again. However unfortunately he passed away a while ago so I don’t know how it attaches/detaches. Got a plumber booked to come round and replace the outdoor tap, fix the stopcock - hopefully he will be able to change the handle rather than dig it all up...