Replacing my reducing valve

kenmac

Just stay tuned.. It's comming. It's a safety issue.They are trying to make sure potable water stays potable for everyone on the system

BlueBSH

Yeah you dont want someone accidently or on purpous back flowing something back into the public water suppy

speedster1

I started to tackle this project yesterday and then I noticed something I wasn't sure about. In the atached picture I inserted two new red lines. At that particular connection the connector on the left nearest the ball valve is hexagonal and so I can grip it with a large wrench. The connector on the right nearest the prv is round brass and is part of the new Watts PRV I bought.

Am I correct in thinking I need to use a pipe wrench to tighten that connection? I'm not really understanding why the Watts connector is not hexagonal. It's not like it's a sweat connection. Seems to leave a little too much room for error.

Lastly, should I be using teflon tape on these threads?

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BlueBSH

Oh the circular brass connector...... I had fun getting that thing to screw on since it isn't hex... I put it on with a tight pipe wrench, its the only thing I could think of, and it worked alright... just make sure you use pretty good quality teflon tape on the threads of the sweated on male threaded connector on the existing pipe when you wrench on that circular brass one that came with the new watts reducer... you do not want to have to take it off again...

I put on pink heavy duty teflon tape with a couple wraps just to make sure it sealed... then hand threaded the brass circular piece got a pipe wrench with good iron teeth on it and grabbed onto it as tight as I could make it, then twisted it on... goes on relatively easy, just the final few turns can be hard if you dont have it gripping the piece good enough, but once its on and tight, leave it on... if it leaks, its not tight enough yet

secutanudu

And you need teflon tape/pipe dope (or both) on all threades except for the outer one that holds that union together. All that connection does is squeeze the two pipes together, the threads themselves do not hold any water.

I like to use wide, thicker tape for big fittings like that, I use 3/4" "Blue Monster" tape, 4-5 wraps - the stuff is awesome and so much easier to work with than the flimsy 1/4" wide white stuff.

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Andrew

speedster1

Thanks. Why in the heck wouldn't they just make that round fitting a hex type fitting?

BlueBSH

*shurgs* ask Watts