DIY - A new kitchen for Mum

[wonwinglo]

Neat job for your mum,true about the stop cocks being in a silly out of the way place,can hardly reach mine right underneath the sink can hardly reach it with my arthritic arms.
What is a sure stop with a remote switch ? can you explain how that works please.

[Guest]

What is a sure stop with a remote switch ? can you explain how that works please.

Certainly Barry

Firstly the Surestop itself is a replacement for your existing, tap like stopcock. It has a button on it that looks similar to a household light switch for turning the water on and off. It works entirely off water pressure though, no electricity involved or connected.

A remote switch can then be connected to this, which can be up to 2 metres away and placed much more conveniently than your average stopcock. As you can see, this one is near the front of the cupboard under the sink so very easy to access. Again it looks similar to a domestic light switch but is entirely water operated, with two flexible narrow water pipes running between the Surestop and the remote switch.

I believe there's even a smart version that can be controlled via an app!

I got one from Toolstation for around £55, but they can be found elsewhere. Not cheap but pretty insignificant compared to the damage that could be caused if there was a leak and mum couldn't turn the water off.

Manufacturers site is surestop.co.uk

[wonwinglo]

Certainly Barry

Firstly the Surestop itself is a replacement for your existing, tap like stopcock. It has a button on it that looks similar to a household light switch for turning the water on and off. It works entirely off water pressure though, no electricity involved or connected.

A remote switch can then be connected to this, which can be up to 2 metres away and placed much more conveniently than your average stopcock. As you can see, this one is near the front of the cupboard under the sink so very easy to access. Again it looks similar to a domestic light switch but is entirely water operated, with two flexible narrow water pipes running between the Surestop and the remote switch.

I believe there's even a smart version that can be controlled via an app!

I got one from Toolstation for around £55, but they can be found elsewhere. Not cheap but pretty insignificant compared to the damage that could be caused if there was a leak and mum couldn't turn the water off.

Manufacturers site is surestop.co.uk

What a brilliant idea Paintguy,will certainly consider that for the future,thank you for the explanation.

[stillp]

I keep meaning to get one of those. Our stopcocks are in the utility room behind the washing machinery, so a switch above them would make life easier if the missus needs to turn the water off. Trouble is that me and plumbing don't get on very well!
Pete

[JR]

That I like the sound of, nothing worse than clamouring under a sink unit ,
or even trying to find it when wanting to turn the stop cock off .
Good idea Andy.
One of the things I would insist on was a new stop cock on the incoming water from the mains in the street.
The local inspector from the
Water Board was all for this. Said it saved them from an emergency call out when the old tap snapped in the path when after years of being on someone tried to turn It off.

[JR]

I keep meaning to get one of those. Our stopcocks are in the utility room behind the washing machinery, so a switch above them would make life easier if the missus needs to turn the water off. Trouble is that me and plumbing don't get on very well!
Pete

Pete wise move, normal straight fwd bit if plumbing with a compression fitting, or with plastic pipe is ok.
Playing with the stop cock esp when it's connect with a old style black plastic pipe , or even worse lead pipe, can be fraught with problems. This is where having a modern ground main tap in a shrouded pipe is bliss. If it's a new blue pipe a lot easier to do as they are all compression fittings.

[Guest]

Pete, the plumber that fitted our boiler put me on to them. Ours is pretty easy to reach but he had one customer where he had to move furniture, lift carpets, unscrew an access panel in the floor, then reach down to turn off the stopcock. Not something you'd want to be doing in an emergency!

Thankfully my mum had recently had a water meter fitted so there was a newish stop tap on the driveway outside. Even the water board told her not to use the one inside as it was ready for snapping! I turned the water off outside, cut a small section out of the 15mm pipe right next to the original stopcock (rightly or wrongly I left that in place) and push fitted the new Surestop on.

[stillp]

Well, it should be an easy job at chez moi - when Severn Trent fitted our new water meter they fitted a stopcock both sides of it to allow for easy replacement in the future, so I could just replace the 2nd one with the Surestop. All copper pipe so the compression fit version would be OK.
Pete