Turning off Hot Water to Taps

Sorry for such a basic question. The cupboard with the hot water tank and the cupboard with the non-combi boiler are a mess of copper piping and I am trying to make sense of it. I want to replace a washer in a downstairs hot tap.

There is a pipe that goes to the loft. This pipe has a valve in it (see picture) and it then goes to the bottom of the hot water tank. There is a small spur off this pipe I guess for draining the tank.

In addition there are two more pipes attached to the bottom of the hot water tank. These have 90 deg elbows and go straight into the floor. No valves.

Off the top off the tank there is a pipe that connects to another pipe that runs from the floor into the loft. There is a branch off this with a post-it note saying "hot water" and there is a lever valve (see picture).

I tried closing the lever valve and opening the downstairs tap but hot water just keeps on coming. I guess that valve might be to turn off water to the shower only, but I am not sure.

Do I need to turn off the valve in the picture that I guess is the cold water feed to the bottom of the tank? If so why doesn't this value have a lever or wheel on it?

Once off should I always drain through an upstairs hot tap rather than a downstairs hot tap?

Thanks in advance!

The valve without a wheel on it is the one to turn off.

Use a spanner or adjustable to turn off.

Open a downstairs hot tap to empty the pipe work,
there should be very little water to drain.

I would be very wary of touching the valve that has had the handle removed.that is a gate valve ,and they are notorious for not closing FULLY ,and not opening again ! I beg the question has this been problematic in the past ,so the wheel head has been removed to make it less useable ?

Set a hot tap running slowly and then get into the loft. Stick your hand into the cold water tank and you should be able to feel which outlet the water is leaving from. Stick a big lump of blu-tac over the outlet. By the time you get back out of the loft, the water should have stopped.

terryplumb said:

I would be very wary of touching the valve that has had the handle removed.that is a gate valve ,and they are notorious for not closing FULLY ,and not opening again ! I beg the question has this been problematic in the past ,so the wheel head has been removed to make it less useable ?

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The same advice I was given here a few years ago when I replaced my kitchen, leave valve well alone I was told, it'll probably turn off but fail when turning back on

Thanks for the replies. We had our bathroom remodeled four weeks ago. The contractor didn't mention anything about it. I would assume they used this valve.

I don't know the history of the valve unfortunately.

Just use it then because you know you want to just crack on and try it but just don't force it and if it does break you'll have to change it anyway for future use

+1 ... and if it does need replaced, bang in a 22mm full bore lever valve.