How often should you test your shut-off valves?

Why bother

Seized valves are useless in a burst-pipe panic. Standard upkeep. Dull and cheap, and a lot less dull than whatever it's quietly preventing.

What the job involves

1. Find them all first. The main is where the supply enters the house: basement, crawl space, garage, or a meter box near the street. Then the little stops under sinks, behind toilets, and at the washer. You want to know where they are before the day you need them, not after.
2. Work the main. A lever (ball) valve turns 90 degrees to shut; a round wheel (gate) valve turns clockwise. Run a faucet first, close the valve fully, check the flow stops, then reopen it fully. That's the whole point: proving it still moves.
3. Do the same to each fixture stop, closing and reopening so they don't seize in place. Wipe off any mineral crust, and if you can get at the stem, a dab of plumber's grease keeps it turning next year.
4. After you reopen, watch for a weep at the stem and note anything stiff or that won't seal. Flag those for a plumber rather than forcing an old gate valve, which can snap if you lean on it.

Do it yourself, or pay someone?

DIY, and free: working the valves takes a few minutes a year and nothing but your hands. Call a plumber only when one's seized, leaks at the stem, or won't fully shut off. Replacing a main shut-off runs about $250 to $600 (typically $425 to $500), and swapping a tired gate valve for a quarter-turn ball valve costs much the same.

What skipping it costs

Water damage claims commonly run $1,000 to $6,000, with severe ones averaging around $15,400 and the worst cases past $50,000. Almost all of that is restoration, not the pipe, and it scales with how long the water runs before someone stops it. A valve that won't turn in an emergency is the whole reason the water keeps running. Working it once a year so it actually shuts costs you a few minutes.

Signs it's overdue

• The handle won't turn, or only turns if you really lean on it, which is sediment and corrosion locking it up inside.
• You close it fully and a faucet still trickles, meaning the valve no longer seals.
• Water weeps from the stem or body after you work it, or there's crusty mineral and rust built up around the handle.

When to start thinking about it

A few days' warning does it. Grumpty grumbles 3 days out, then leaves you alone. Mark it done and Grumpty sets the next one, every 12 months, so you can go back to forgetting it exists.

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