Emergency water shut-off methods & devices:

How to turn off water in an emergency if the shutoff valve doesn't work. These tools, methods, tricks and approaches allow you or your plumber to stop water flow through a water supply pipe in order to make an emergency repair. Often repairs can be made with the tool in place and some shutoffs can be made without cutting the pipes involved, by using crimping or freezing or plug tools.

Page top illustration: Wheeler-Rex water pipe crimping tool that can stop and then restore water flow.

How to Turn Off Water if the Valve Does Not Work - Emergency Shutoffs

Question: how can we turn off water to our cattle waterer when the valve won't work?

2018/02/15 Joyce said:

We live in the country and have an outside cattle waterer that is leaking. We thought we had it shut off several years ago, but now it is leaking by inside the waterer.

We're using 4000 gal. of water a day and we normally use half that much. How can
I shut off the water to the waterer. Thanks.

This question and reply were posted originally at WATER PUMP ELECTRICAL SWITCHES

Illustration: installing a JoMar Add-A-Valve water valve on a copper plumbing line - we discuss this product in the text below.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Reply: close main water valve or crimp pipe, freeze pipe, or install an emergency water shutoff add-on valve on copper water line

Joyce,

Follow the waterer supply pipes back to the source.

If there is only one shutoff valve and that one is not closing off the water supply then follow further back to find where turn off ALL of your water supply.

You'll have to turn off all water, then repair or replace the bad shutoff valve to the waterer.

You can do that by turning off your main water system shutoff valve.

See WATER SHUTOFF VALVE LOCATION, USE or for well and pump systems

see WATER SHUTOFF VALVE, WELL PUMP.

If your water supply is by a well pump, you can also simply turn off the pump.

See WATER PUMP ELECTRICAL SWITCHES if you don't know how to do that.

Or if there is no service switch at the water pump, find the pump circuit in the electrical panel and turn that off. Or just switch breakers off one by one until the pump stops.

[Click to enlarge any image]

I've seen other tricks that work in an emergency, depending on the type of piping, such as cutting, crimping over, and bending shut copper water pipes, or sawing through a pipe and hammering in a wooden cork as a temporary emergency measure.

Some plumbers also use freon and actually freeze a water line long enough to permit installation of a shutoff valve or cap. We describe pipe freezing kits below along with special crimping tools or quick stop tools that can stop water flowing in an active iron or copper water supply line.

Add-On Water Shutoff Valves Without Cutting Water Pipe

If you can find one locally, there are add-on emergency shutoff valves that can be added to a water line whose water you can't otherwise shut off, such as the Jomar Add-A-Valve that I illustrated above. This valve clamps onto an existing water line, seals to it, then pierces it to function as an emergency shutoff.

This add-on emergency shutoff valve works on types M, L, and K copper tubing (not on galvanized steel nor plastic) and can be installed in about half an hour on hot or cold water piping.

• Jomar ADD-A-VALVE EMERGECY SHUTOFF VALVE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS [PDF], Jomar Valve, Central Office & Distribution Center, 7243 Miller Drive
  Warren, MI 48092 USA, Website: http://www.jomarvalve.com/ Tel: 1-800-325-5690. retrieved 2018/02/16, original source: http://www.jomarvalve.com/docs/lit-sf-aavi.pdf

Crimping Devices Form an Emergency Shutoffs for Iron or Copper Pipe

• Reed Manufacturing, PES2IPS crimping tool (shown above) can shut off water in iron pipes - IPS piping - pipe manufactured to ASTM D2239 also called "iron pipe size". The company's tools can be adapted to shut off water in other types of pipe as well.
  
  Contact Reed Pipe Tools & Vises, Erie PA, USA, Tel: 800-666-3691 (US/Canada)
• Reed PE IRON PIPE SQUEEZE-OFF TOOL OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS [PDF] retrieved 2018/02/16, original source: https://www.reedmfgco.com/en/products/plastic-pipe-tools/pe-squeeze-off-tools/pes2ips/
  
  By changing the stops in this tool the crimper or squeezer can be used to shut off water in other types of piping.

Illustration: Wheeler-Rex water pipe crimping tool (discussed below) can stop and then restore water flow. [Click to enlarge any image]

• SharkBite plumbing fittings can be secured to existing water pipes without soldering or threading. These fittings are sold by plumbing suppliers and may make possible a rapid repair of live water pipes.
  
  A special SharkBite crimping installation tool is required. Shark Bite fittings are availble for copper and for PEX tubing.
  
  
• SharkBite Plumbing Solutions, SharkBite USA 2300 Defoor Hills Rd. NW Atlanta, GA 30318 USA Tel: 1-877-700-4242
  
  SharkBite Canada 74 Alex Avenue Vaughan, Ontario, L4L 5X1 Canada, tel: 1-888-820-0120 retrieved 2020/01/19 original source: https://www.sharkbite.com/
  
  SHARKBITE INSTALLATION GUIDE [PDF] (2018) Reliance Worldwide Corporation 2300 Defoor Hills Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30318 Phone: 1-877-700-4242 Fax: 1-877-700-4280 rwc.com Reliance Worldwide Corporation (Canada) Inc. 74 Alex Avenue Vaughan, Ontario, L4L 5X1 Phone: 1-888-820-0120 Sales Inquiries: canadasales@rwc.com Orders: canadaorders@rwc.com retrieved 2019/08/13 original source: https://www.sharkbite.com/sites/g/files/rgohfh321/files/2018-05/SharkBite_Installation_Instructions_2018_WEB.p
  
  We illustrate the use of these fittings at PEX PIPING INFORMATION

Crimping tools made by Wheeler-Rex will crimp can close off water flow to shut off water through copper pipes.

Water flow can be restored at the crimped pipe without cutting, by re-forming the pipe to open it again - illustrated above.

• Wheeler Rex 85 & other SHUTOFF CRIMPING TOOLS for COPPER PIPE, [PDF] Wheeler Manufacturing, a Division of Rex International USA, Inc., P.O. Box 688 3744 Jefferson Road
  Ashtabula, OH 44005 USA, Tel: 800.321.7950 Email: wheeler@wheelerrex.com
• Wheeler Rex 75 Shutoff-Tools for Plastic Pipe, fits 3/8" to 2" diameter 10-50mm emergency shutoff tool.

Quick-Stop Plugs & Expanders to Shut Off Water Supply Pipes for Repairs

Other types of Water Pipe Stoppers are used to permit quick repairs or to permit installation of a water valve without turning off the water supply.

• At LEAKY PIPE REPAIRS the hand-made tool below is described where it was used to permit installation of a water shutoff valve in water supply piping in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Commercial versions of this tool are also available as we illustrate and cite below.

Above, a home-made expanding-plug quick-stop valve that is inserted through the new valve and thence into an active water pipe to shut off water flow while the new valve is installed.

• Below we illustrate a "Quick Sweat" water stopper also used for water pipe repair. This device, by employing a longer and flexible control rod, can be inserted through multiple fittings into an active water pipe to stop water flow through copper pipes onto which fittings will be soldered.

The tool above is distributed by PlumbingSupply.com and is described at https://www.plumbingsupply.com/waterstopperforsoldering.html

• Jet Swet Solder Kit. Brenelle Enterprises Inc, produces the Jet-Swet plumbing plug. Brenell Ent., PO Box 530729, Henderson NV 89053, website: www.brenelle.com, Tel: 800-727-1018
  
  The company's Jet Swet kit provides an assortment of expanding plug tools that can insert through a valve or other pipe fitting to permit installing a shutoff on copper, PVC, steel, and stainless steel pipes. Sold by plumbing suppliers.

• Jones Stephens, Website; www.jonesstephens.com, tel: 800-355-6637Jones Stephens Sure Sweat Dissolvable Pipe Plugs are sold in various sizes to stop water inside of a pipe to permit repair work. The plugs dissolve "safely and completely with water. These plugs are one of the older methods of stopping live water pipes and are a product used by the website author [DF] in the 1970's.
  
  Sure-Sweat dissolvable pipe plugs are sold by plumbing suppliers.

Pipe Freezing Kits for Temporary Stoppage of Water Supply Pipes to Permit Repair

Illustration: Using a Cold-Shot pipe freeze fitting (cited below) to freeze a section of water or heating pipe to permit pipe repair work when there is no working shutoff valve.

A long-used method of stopping water supply in a water piping system to permit emergency repair or emergency installation of a new shutoff valve is to freeze the water pipe on the supply side or on both sides of a point at which the pipe is to be cut to have a stop valve or gate valve installed.

Freezing of the water pipe may be accomplished using liquid CO2. We no longer use HVAC refrigerants or Freon because of prohibitions against further contaminating the environment with those gases.

The pipe is frozen, cut, a valve or other fittings installed, and then the pipe is permitted to thaw. Freezing typically takes five minutes or less. For a homeowner or consumer it will be smarter to hire a plumber to provide this service since buying the kit is not likely to be economical to make a single water pipe repair.

Where it's necessary to work on a section of piping that may feed water from either direction, two freeze points are required, and must be (typically) about 4" or more apart.

• GENERAL WIRE & SPRING COLD SHOT PIPE FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS [PDF] (2009) General Wire & Spring Company, 1101 Thompson Ave., McKees Rocks, PA 15136 USA, Tel: 412-771-6300, Website: www.drainbrain.com [Illustrated above]
  
  General Wire & Spring Co. provides a Cold Shot pipe freezing kit that include freeze heads, tools, and fittings that work with a container of liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) to freeze the water pipe. The kit is also distributed by plumbingsupply.com and described at plumbingsupply.com/coldpipefreezingkit.htmlgeneral wire
  
  Excerpt:
  The Cold-Shot can be used to freeze all types of liquids, even at high pressure, inside steel, copper, cast iron, lead, aluminum and plastic pipe in sizes ranging from 1/8” to 2” (10-60 mm).
  
  The Cold-Shot uses commercially available carbon dioxide (CO2). ...
  
  The ice pack which forms in the pipe is capable of withstanding a pressure of approximately 7000 psi (500 bar). As the liquid freezes, a layer of frost will develop on the surface of the pipe.

...

Continue reading  at WATER SHUTOFF VALVE LOCATION or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• FAUCET LEAK, WASHER REPLACEMENT
• PLUMBING CONTROLS & VALVES - home
• WATER PUMP ELECTRICAL SWITCHES
• WATER SHUTOFF VALVE LOCATION

If your water supply is by private pump and well and you need to turn off the water, details are at WATER SHUTOFF VALVE, WELL PUMP.

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