I was told that all the 15 multi-turn angle shut off valves in my house (10 years old) need to replaced by quarter-turn valves (ball valve inside) as the current type of valve can fail at any time and lead to water damage. All the connections come out of the wall. Is this correct? Do 10 year old valves need changing to avoid failure? Do they need to be of the quarter-turn type?

Whoever told you that? Certainly not the city. Put your mind at ease because you have no problem. If this were so there would be millions of homes replacing valves. Good luck, Tom

Sounds to me like someone is trying to make a few bucks off you. I do believe that the 1/4 turn valves are superior, but to replace perfectly good valves is excessive, IMO. That's like replacing your perfectly good refrigerator because "someday it might break." In my experience when an old valve does go bad it becomes hard (or impossible) to turn off completely, as opposed to springing leaks that could case water damage. My house is 40 years old, and we've replaced several of the original valves as part of major remodeling projects, but we still have plenty of the original ones in place.

No.

The quarter turn stop valves are nice. A simple quarter turn to open and close is convenient. The port is a full flow for the maximum flow. There are no washers to replace. The compression type (multi-turn) takes more effort to open and close and washers sometimes need to be replaced. Sometimes they won't turn off completely because the washer needs to be replaced. Some times you need to tighten the bonnet nut around the stem to stop a leak because the corrosion around the stem wears away the stem packing material.

Other than that they do not "fail". If someone is telling you they can fail and lead to water damage they are "misleading" you.

Hmmm...

I am in complete agreement with all of the above, BUT if you are in a CONDO complex (or similar setup) and they have polybutylene shutoffs or some other valve that has had a recall then it may be in everyone's best interest to replace the bad valves.

If these are 10 year old brass craft (or similar) brass angle shut off valves then yeah, there is absolutely no reason to change them out.

More info. Needed here...

Mark

Thanks everyone for the answers. This really helps.My house is a single family residence (not condo) and the valves are BrassCraft. None of them are leaking actively BUT there is some limescale deposit on the outside that I can feel when I touch. We do have hard water (but do not have freezing temperatures). It is a handyman who came to fix something else in the bathroom that told me about this. He said there was a recall on these valves and they could lead to leaks inside the walls and we wouldn't see until really bad water damage happened. He also quoted $50 each, so about $800 to replace all. I went online to get more information about this failure and couldn't find any, which is why I asked this forum.

limescale deposit on the outside
I assume you mean pitting of the exterior chrome surface. Valves are made of brass. Pitting has nothing to do with functioning of valves. Appearance only. Have not heard of any kind of recall on BrassCraft.

No way can a any kind of valve create leaks inside the walls.

Valves cost about $10 each. That is $150. Should take about 5 minutes each to change out. Even if you figure 15 minutes per valve that is 4 hours. That is $160 per hour labor. Unless you live in New York city that seems high to me. Especially for work that doesn't need to be done.

www.frezzeproofvalve.com (http://www.frezzeproofvalve.com)

Link doesn't work. Don't know what it means. We are not talking about hose bibs here.

Yep, handyman is trying toi take you to the cleaners.