What Is a Ball Valve and Why Should I Use Them In My Home?

Imagine you didn’t have shutoff valves at each plumbing fixture in your home. Besides violating nearly every plumbing code, you’d have to shut off the water to your entire house to work on any faucet or toilet. That’s really inconvenient. And that’s why every fixture has a shutoff valve, often called an angle stop valve.

I’ve been slowly upgrading the plumbing in my older home. As part of that, I’m replacing the old gate valves at each fixture with quarter-turn valves, otherwise known as ball valves. Putting a ball valve at each fixture is a simple DIY job, and makes plumbing maintenance easy for everyone in the family.

I like ball valves at faucets and toilets because if a fixture fails and starts to flood while I’m away from home, my wife or kids can easily shut off the water with a flick of a wrist.

What Is a Ball Valve?

A device with a handle that lets you control the flow of water through a pipe.

The internal mechanism features a sphere with a hole drilled in it and a handle connecting to the sphere. The ball glides on valve seats within the body of the valve. These seats sit perfectly against the sides of the sphere, sealing it.

When you turn the handle in one direction, water flows through the hole. Turn the handle 90 degrees, and the part of the sphere without a hole blocks the flow of water.

How Does a Ball Valve Work?

By turning the lever on the outside of the valve body.

When you turn the lever in line with the tubing of the plumbing system, water flows through the hole in the middle of the ball. When the handle isn’t in line with the tubing, water cannot flow.

What’s the Difference Between a Gate Valve and a Ball Valve Shutoff?

A traditional shut-off valve at a household fixture is typically a gate valve, which works exactly like it sounds. Imagine a gate in a fence that slides up and down or side-to-side. A gate valve slides up and down with the turning of a knob. The gate, when closed, blocks the flow of water.

Gate valves are simple and inexpensive, but they’re inconvenient, because they typically require several turns of a knob to close. And gate valves often stick if they haven’t been operated frequently. That’s not helpful when a plumbing fixture fails and you need to quickly shut off the water to avoid additional damage.

A ball valve, on the other hand, remains reliable for long periods. A quick turn shuts off the water. Just make sure you open and close them completely. A partially open ball valve can rattle around within the sealing seats in the body of the valve, shortening the life of the valve seat.

Thankfully, since the valve turns easily to 90 degrees, it’s easy to be sure it’s fully open or closed.

How To Use A Ball Valve

Installing a ball valve is easy. Just make certain you purchase the right valve for the size of inlet and outlet pipe. You’ll need to shut off the water supply for the house, of course. Once that’s done, it’s a quick and easy job.

What Are Ball Valves Used For?

You might find slightly larger ball valves in your home if it’s newer and plumbed with PEX plastic tubing instead of the traditional copper supply lines.

In PEX-plumbed homes, you’ll often find a manifold of tubing in a basement or other utility room near the main water supply inlet from the street.

The manifold features ball valves that allow you to shut off the water supply for an entire room or section of a house. That way, you can remodel or repair a specific area without shutting off the water to the entire house, though there will still be a shutoff at each fixture.

Ball valves are often used in industrial applications, too, since they’re reliable and relatively inexpensive. Ball valves aren’t only for water. They can be used for industrial chemicals and gases, as long as the materials used are compatible with what’s plumbed into the system.