Strange valve? underneath bath

[tornado]

Hi,

There is a white plastic valve? connected to the cold water pipe running up to my shower (see photo). It has a small hole in the middle of the end face. Recently it has been, very slowly, leaking so I tried covering it in plumbers mait, which didn't work.

What is this part?

Could i replace it with a straight section of pipe or is a replacement part obtainable?

thanks

Untitled

• tornado
• 27 Sep 2012
• 1

 

[mickyg]

cant really identify it, looks like someones taken a dump on the pipe, take the turd off so we can see whats underneath

 

[tornado]

it's really hard to get the putty off! it's basically a short horizontal cylinder coming off the vertical pipe with a hole in the centre of the end face. on the other side there's an even shorter horizontal cylinder with a blank end face.

what normally goes on the cold water supply of a standard (non-power) shower? or are they connected directly off the mains pipe?

 

[denso13]

are they connected directly off the mains pipe?

Usually, connect it straight through and see what happens.

 

[tornado]

If I just took this out and replace it with normal pipe, what's the best way of bridging a short (~10 cm) gap like that? A flexible hose would probably have to be bent too sharply to work?

 

[BigSnoopy01]

2 couplers and a short bit of pipe. compression if not end feed.

 

[swbjackson]

It could be a pressure reducing valve. Are you on mains cold, tank fed hot?

 

[tornado]

the cold is mains-fed, and the hot is from an old combi boiler with not particularly good flow rate

so i guess it is possible this is a PRV?

it only seemed to drip-leak after the cold water tap is turned off, not whilst it is running.

i hope they're all a standard length as it looks like i need to replace it!

 

[polesapart]

I would hazard a guess as it being an old gate valve which had leaked at the gland/headgear and which some bodger had "fixed" with 2-part epoxy putty.
I doubt it serves any useful purpose.