Frostless hose cock rebuild/replace

[crefwatch]

I've had little success on Plumbing sites, so now I'm asking here. Years ago, I installed (copper, solder) myself a frostless sill cock in my 1955 home. It was from a place like Home Depot, and worked great for years. It says "American Valve 1020 12 In. M73AS" on the knob.

I am aware that these units should not be shut as firmly as old-style valves. But after many years, it would no longer shut off all the way. Home Depot no longer sold either rebuild kits, or even the entire exact-same faucet. I found this on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DH ... UTF8&psc=1

It appears right, and fits well from the point of view of installing it. But it apparently is not the exact same dimension, or not the exact same design. It only lasted a few weeks or months, with no abuse at all. Note that it is engineered with two threads, a fine one for installing through the casting, and a coarse one for daily operation of the valve. The actuating end has a funny spring support of a cone, instead of a flat rubber washer, say.

The solder job was so difficult that I don't want to put in a completely new valve, which will undoubtedly only last six years, anyway! If I did replace it, I would go back to the 1955 style. At age 72, I don't want to re-tool, for PEX or something like that. Luckily, I did not remove the 1955 indoor supply shutoff.

I live in a HCOL area, and recently received an unsolicited bid of $900 to replace the two limed-up valves above my gas water heater! He was there to drum up business for the HVAC company, no actual problems.

[Millennial]

I would replace it it a Prier C-144 (or P-164 if you like quarter turn) and never worry about it again.

[LittleMaggieMae]

OP, I feel your pain. Do you have a local plumbing supply "store"? Googling Plumbing Supply and then the suburb you live in (or suburbs around you) might get you the info or parts or replacement you are looking for.

Home Depot (and now Ace Hardware) seem to only have "modern" home repair stuff.

[Watty]

The solder job was so difficult that I don't want to put in a completely new valve.....

It is time to hire a plumber to do it right then.

The quote you got for the gas valve replacement was a scam so I would ignore it.

I would assume that this would cost just about the minimum plumbers fee plus the parts to you should be able to get a reasonable cost(couple of hundred dollars??) to have it done right. You can likely call around and get rough quotes over the phone.

[barnaclebob]

Do you have any real plumbing supply stores around? Take your part in there and see if they have a replacement. Last time I had one of these fail I did have to buy a whole new hose bib but just used the part on the inside.

[Harry Livermore]

I would replace it it a Prier C-144 (or P-164 if you like quarter turn) and never worry about it again.

+1
We used Prier valves when we did the renovation on our home that eventually became a rental. Never a problem with the valves, when we sold the house last year (20 years after the reno) they functioned perfectly. I did replace the actual wheels that you turn (not quarter turn) as the finish peeled off from 3 of the 4 valves. Could have been a bad batch of paint in 2001, who knows.
Cheers

[abner kravitz]

The solder job was so difficult that I don't want to put in a completely new valve.....

It is time to hire a plumber to do it right then.

The quote you got for the gas valve replacement was a scam so I would ignore it.

I would assume that this would cost just about the minimum plumbers fee plus the parts to you should be able to get a reasonable cost(couple of hundred dollars??) to have it done right. You can likely call around and get rough quotes over the phone.

I just had a new one put in, $300. My plumber is a generally a little on the high side though. Does nice work so I stay with him.

[rule of law guy]

just love the topic title

[dukeblue219]

just love the topic title

Yeah, that was a new term to me.

We always called it a spigot or just faucet.

[chemocean]

I had a frost-free, anti-siphon wall hydrant (i.e. hose bib) that would not shut off. I wanted to replace the inside stem, but parts were not available for that 20-year old model number. I was told by the plumbing supply company that the inside surface for the seat in the outside pipe for the stem seal was probably pitted and replacing the inside stem would not work.

Luckily, the entire valve was easily accessible from the crawl space. Unfortunately, a male NPT fitting was soldered on the supply pipe and the only new wall hydrant that I could purchase at a big box store had a male fitting. Even knowing that the more couplings that you have lead to more leaks, I ended up adding a male-to-male coupling which extended the wall hydrant 1/2" out from the wood plate on the outside. I ended up nailing a smaller 1/2" piece of wood to the original plate, sealed it all with chalk and it seems to working well.

If the supply line coupling is accessible, I suggest that you have the plumber solder a female fitting on the supply water line and install a common bib. That way you will be able to replace the bib with a second pair of hands the next time it fails. You need to have pipe wrenches on both the supply line and the valve, otherwise you might torque the supply line.

Five years later, the bib on the other side of the house failed. Ok, I know where the supply line is in the crawl space and it probably also has a male fitting on the supply line. I buy the new bib valve and a the male-to-male coupling and head down to the crawl space. I see that the supply line goes up, makes a couple of 90-degree turns and heads up into the wall between the garage and the laundry room. Since I didn't want to tear apart a wall to replace the valve, I bought a generic stem replacement part. I leaked a little bit at first, put now shuts offs completely.

I haven't had to figured out what the break-even number of replacements stems ($35/each) for a limited time versus having a plumber tear into the wall and replace the valve and then have the Sheetrock repaired. Given that the replacement generic stem was worked for a few years, I bet the break-even point is about 50 years.

[crefwatch]

chemocean especially, but thanks to all.

I suppose the noun is regional, working-class, or historical, but it is quite widespread in the Northeast USA. As you know, many plumbing and fastener terms involve unfortunate gender slang. Current DEI movements have sometimes brought that up. "Hydrant" has a real UK ring to me. The "proper" adjective is actually "sill", not "hose", but I chose a less slangy word for a newsboard.