I currently have a Dome unit attached to ball valve water cutoff on my rental house. The house we bought (and about to move into) has a gate valve on copper. The copper transitions to PVC then there is a PVC valve like this:
Since I dont believe the Dome works on that type of PVC ball valve, what are my options?
I would replace the gate valve with a ball valve. And use the Dome on that valve.
With that said, I think the Zooz ZAC36 Titan will work on the PVC valve. The specs don’t say that it cannot be installed on PVC, although that would not be my preference.
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@stephen_nutt I certainly wouldn't use PVC for active water lines in my house. It's weird that they use that. The simplest thing to do would be to cut the water to the house. Install a pex ball valve in line then a pex to pvc adapter. That said again, the though of PVC being used as a main line in a house seems very strange.
It’s pretty common here for houses built in the ‘90s. Usually transitions to CPVC for the hot side, because CPVC withstands the same temperatures as PEX.
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It was polybutylene but, in the terms of the sale after inspection, the sellers had to replace it with PVC.
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What did they use on the hot side?
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I'm old school. Plastic has it applications but our city water runs a minimum of 85 PSI and I've seen it as high as 110 PSI.
In your case I would consider extending the copper coming in, adding a brass ball valve. PVC ball valves are for swimming pools. I "exercise" my brass ball valve every 2 months to make sure it doesn't get too comfortable in the open position. I don't see how a PVC valve would survive this type of service.
Remember.... "meeting code" does not mean its appropriate in all cases. I think of meeting code as the lowest level acceptable. Consider "Backstabbing" electrical receptacles "meets code".
Just a note: I believe backstabbing meets code because no one can make $$ by changing it. And the lobbyist's backers could loose money by having to retool a product where the tooling has been paid off for 20 years. So I suspect plumbing has its own similar situation.
I get what you're saying. I guess every house I've lived in has had copper throughout.
That being said, PRVs have a low rate of failure, and even PEX can handle 150 psi. PVC can obviously handle much higher pressures than that.
There’s an innuendo in there just waiting to break out.
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PVR -- My wife loves the extra pressure for a shower.
As for PEX handling 150 PSI. I'm know your are aware of "design margin". And fatigue over time. I've already had leak due to a sink shutoff valve with a plastic shaft. One day the shaft just broke at the bonnet nut. Hadn't touched it in over a year.
The valve was there when I moved in. Now I'm 100% copper with the exception of the sink and toilet feeds which are SS mesh over some plastic tube.
And I don't have anything against plastic. Our company makes automotive fuel tanks out of plastic. I've seen them dropped repeatedly from 15" to a cement surface when the tank was full of antifreeze and chilled to -40 degrees.
Our fuel modules (the plastic structure that holds the fuel pump and filter, located in the tank) are made of plastic. An interesting tidbit which initially freaked me when I joined the company, our electric brush type fuel pumps have fuel going through the motor, over the armature and across the brushes.
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I did my whole house in PEX with a PEX manifold. We run 3/4 to the master bedroom shower (it has 8 heads) at 80 psi works well. The only copper I did was for the shower controls.
