Help From Plumber Please .....Problem Switching Off Water At Mains!

[moggie 939]

Hello

I live in a retirement flat and when it was built 8 yrs ago they put the mains stopcock right in corner of kitchen and built cupboards over it so it cannot be reach by us elderly people! To cure this problem they then put in a little white plastic box (not sure what it is called) which is not connected to electrics but has a white hollow tube attached to it and this disappears in direction of stopcock!

On the box is a blue switch which says on / off and I was told if I had a leak (which I had on the boiler yesterday) to switch it to off and all the water would stop coming out of the taps - they said it worked off vacuum? I did this and all that happened was all the taps kept flowing except for the cold water tap in bathroom sink!
Luckily the boiler engineer was able to reduce boiler pressure and fit a part with water still on.

Can anyone tell a puzzled 83 year old what this device is and how it turns of the mains water please and why it is not working except on one tap?

Thanks so much

Moggie

[Old_Geezer]

Perhaps because it has become defective ?

If they say it is a valve that uses vacuum to turn the water off, presumably that's what it is.

Maybe you can get a plumber to insert a more accessible stopcock somewhere ?

[moggie 939]

Thanks for that - it is vacuum of sorts
Moggie

[bhg481]

This is the sort of thing they will have fitted:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/surestop-remote-stop-cock-push-fit-15mm/48604

It will work on the rising main, hence it only affecting one tap - the others will be indirect feed but will have a separate means of isolating them from the mains water supply. Without knowing more details of your plumbing system (which I don't expect you to know) it is difficult to be more helpful.

[gingejbee]

^if it shut off the supply on the rising main, surely the kitchen tap would be affected. Kitchen taps are not an indirect feed in my experience.

[bhg481]

ginge - quite right; I also wondered about the kitchen tap.

[Canary42]

It is not unusual to have only one tap off the mains. It is usually (as has been said already) the kitchen tap, but I am unaware of Building Regulations as to whether it can be another tap.

I expect our Ab expert (The Builder) will be along shortly with the facts.

[gingejbee]

bhg...perhaps the original plumbing contractors wanted to cut corners and do a quicker/easier/cheaper job...although inspection by the water company inspectors should have picked that up...that's part of their job.

[Canary42]

The rationale behind having at least one tap from the mains is that it is designated as drinking water. Strictly speaking water from in-house storage (usually an open tank) should not be deemed such as there is risk of contamination.

[Hopkirk]

If you have a water meter outside the property, there will usually be a stop cock on it. You can switch all the water in your property off there.
Unfortunately it will probably involve kneeling down and putting your hand into a dark and grubby hole.

[moggie 939]

Thanks all
Bhg - think I understand what you mean. Apart from bathroom sink there is only one other COLD tap in kitchen and looking under sink there is a blue tap than can be turned of, but does that mean that if I turn this off then no water will go to the boiler?
Sorry to appear obtuse but do the hot water taps do nothing when the cold ones are turned off - do they only come into action via the boiler then?
Thanks
Moggie

[The Builder]

Yes, it sounds like the 'Surestop' remote valve in bhg's link.
It's quite a simple idea. The power of the mains pressure is simply diverted to a valve that stops flow to the flat.

When they're working properly, they do a good job. They have been known to go wrong though... with disastrous results.
Before we condemn the tap though, the symptoms don't quite add up. It should be 'all or nothing', not some taps only.

Only guessing, but I would suggest that the boiler and the basin tap are connected to the main BEFORE the Surestop valve. Which means it would have no effect on these.

In a good system, flats should have valves fitted in a 'distribution point' somewhere in the building. One valve for each flat. But that's another story.

[The Builder]

Yes, there's always at least one tap for drinking water.

To answer your question about hot taps. It's a flat, so I guess it's a 'Combi' boiler.
Turning off the cold supply to the boiler also means NO water from the hot taps.

[moggie 939]

Thanks builder and everyone - think I understand! Yes it is a combi boiler and the water inlet to the boiler was a little tap in boiler which had broken so he reduced pressure in boiler and managed to block off water to boiler temporay and will come back after hols to fix properly.
So there is just the surestop which stops bathroom tap and I looked under sink and there is a little screw in water pipe to kitchen sink which if I turned it shut would mean no water to kitchen tap?
But presumably this would not affect flow to the boiler as supply to that must come directly from somewhere else?
Re. the water meter - there are 30 flats and we each have a meter deep in the garden outside the building and only the water meter man seems to be able to read them as we cannot!
I will try and get the landlord to put in another Surestop after they have fixed the boiler.
Thanks for all your help everyone
Moggie