Bournemouth area - roadside stop cock / water meter key?

[Ric_01]

Aquam refused to discuss this item, & directed to a generic page of theirs, for water taps, none of which fitted this unit. The last query to them was simply unanswered.

Bournemouth Water have now fitted a plastic key to the stop-point.

No idea how, since the engineer arrived & departed unannounced.

One month ago an engineer claimed that recent plumbers had 'broken' the stop-point. That's impossible, because if the centre section shows damage, it would be bright & shiny metal. However, it is thoroughly tarnished with age, so if that was a break, it happened many years ago. And was never logged.

And if that plastic key replaces a metal one, what are the 3 vanes for, at the sides of the stop-point?

 

[HERTS P&D]

Have you tried a pair of long nose pliers.

Andy

 

[Ric_01]

Have you tried a pair of long nose pliers.

Andy

Why would I now need those please?

 

[HERTS P&D]

Oh, is that plastic key turning the water off now?

Andy

 

[Ric_01]

Oh, is that plastic key turning the water off now?

Andy

I hope so!

 

[Alec_t]

And if that plastic key replaces a metal one, what are the 3 vanes for, at the sides of the stop-point?

Perhaps to enable use of a 3-prong metal tool if the plastic key isn't man enough for the job?

 

[Ric_01]

Perhaps to enable use of a 3-prong metal tool if the plastic key isn't man enough for the job?

Your guess is as good as mine. If Homeserve break the plastic one, I will have that on record, as logged; then ask Bournemouth to replace the water-point with a friendly one - a 'universal fitting' type - which all the retail people carry keys for, & no plumber will ever again be left at a loss for. I can understand fitting something like the 3-vane, anti-tamper point, to a mains junction, serving a housing estate, but fitting one to a single residence makes no sense. Did they think I was going to turn my own water supply off?

 

[polesapart]

Get your friendly independent plumber to replace the internal stopcock.

 

[dilalio]

Did they think I was going to turn my own water supply off?

Or maybe someone else!
If you didn't pay your bill then they could cut you off very easily... That's my thinking on it!

 

[dilalio]

If you have someone with a 3d printer, you could easily make your own 3 vane key

 

[dilalio]

And if that plastic key replaces a metal one, what are the 3 vanes for, at the sides of the stop-point?

Maybe they are for actually removing the valve! Not sure tbh.

 

[Ric_01]

Maybe they are for actually removing the valve! Not sure tbh.

No-one knows, I've been on two plumbing forums over this, for a month, & no-one has ever seen a stop-point like that one before. Bournemouth Water refuse to identify it, but you only get 'talking heads' at their ends, the public is not allowed to speak with the technical side, the engineers. It is a stupid system I've come up against in many other instances. Call-rooms filled with people who know nothing about anything, passing out half-understood messages to depots, who send workers out with the wrong instructions, because the call-rooms don't know the job, all they are good at is picking up a phone, when they feel the inclination. The Bournemouth Water switchboard muzak is now etched into my brain.

 

[dilalio]

No-one knows, I've been on two plumbing forums over this, for a month, & no-one has ever seen a stop-point like that one before. Bournemouth Water refuse to identify it, but you only get 'talking heads' at their ends, the public is not allowed to speak with the technical side, the engineers. It is a stupid system I've come up against in many other instances. Call-rooms filled with people who know nothing about anything, passing out half-understood messages to depots, who send workers out with the wrong instructions, because the call-rooms don't know the job, all they are good at is picking up a phone, when they feel the inclination. The Bournemouth Water switchboard muzak is now etched into my brain.

Welcome to my world!
It's only when I hear the on-hold muzak that I remember who I'm actually calling!

 

[Ric_01]

LOL

 

[Ric_01]

It's a king-size hex-bit fitting. Bournemouth must have dug it out to fit their key in, then they left me the wrong plastic key, which is a hex with a bar running through it, obviously for a different stop-point. But the centre fitting is a hex. The triple vane may be a red herring, those triple grooves may have something to do with fitting the point or extracting it? The people on the phone know nothing, the technical staff just come out, do the job, then go away again - no contact. System designed to fail.