Ideas from Ed: Universal Hosing (Volume 8, Issue 4)

Last month I showed you an easy repair to a leaking valve in the faucet fixture in my powder room sink.  While there doing that work, I also replaced the shutoff valves in the sink cabinet.  You’ll remember that the hot side had this polybutylene unit.  It was a quarter-turn ball valve and worked great:

This month I’ll show you how I replaced that valve and the cold water one as well.  The cold one took many turns to shut off (likely a worn washer inside), and even then, didn’t quite stop the water flow.  Why replace the hot side valve if it worked well?  Because as I said, it’s polybutylene!  Those units are prone to leaking at inopportune times.  They work by having a type of inner-serrated washer between the plastic ends, and things are tightened until the unit “squeaks” to indicate a proper seal.  See my previous “Ideas from Ed” article on PB plumbing here:

https://www.lcppreserve.org/post/ideas-from-ed-pbr-no-not-pabst-blue-ribbon-beer-polybutylene-repair

With the water turned off at the main, I began disassembling things. 

I decided that the quickest and easiest thing to do was to just cut them off.  I used a small pipe/tubing cutter, since space was limited.  Here I am cutting the valve from the cold water side.  I did the same thing at the hot water side.  This valve was attached to the copper using a compression ring.

There’s nothing really special about this month’s work, and any DIY-er can do this.  The main reason I wanted to showcase this is because I happened to have two faucet water hookup lines that I demonstrated once at a workshop.  I’ve never used one in “real life” and wanted to give them a try.  They are “universal fit” and claim to be adaptable to just about every situation:

Inside of the stapled-together cardboard tag is a small bag containing various adapters:

All you need to do is select the adapter that fits your situation, making the hose attach properly to whatever type of valve you have, and insert it in place in the hose end.

I planned to use shutoffs that operated with a quarter-turn, had a push-to-connect end for attachment to the copper, and had a 3/8” compression fitting on the output end.  I chose a push-to-connect valve because the location of the unit would require someone with more agility than I have at my age to crawl on the floor and sweat-fit a soldered joint while working upside down.  However, I removed the compression ring (copper ring in picture below) and the compression nut, since the fit-all hose with the proper end insert would thread directly onto the valve.

I know the pictures are out of sequence, but here’s the new hot water valve, hose attached, threaded onto the faucet inlet, and pushed onto the copper.  It really couldn’t be any easier.  As long as the end of the copper is cut square, is clean, and is free from burrs, the push-to-connect valve grips like there’s no tomorrow.  I used a strip of very fine emery cloth to slightly polish up the copper ends before making the push-fit connection.  Pro tip:  Although push-to-connect fittings can rotate while retaining their seal, it’s best to attach the valve to the hose, then attach the hose to the faucet, and finally push-fit the valve onto the copper.  That way the hoses can be positioned without any kinks.

You’ll note that to replace these in the same configuration (which I did) one straight valve and one 90-degree valve would be needed.

To finish things, I removed the stick-on labels from the supply lines.  I didn’t remove them earlier in case things didn’t work out and they had to be returned to the store where they were purchased.

I hope all your projects go well.  Thanks for reading, and happy restoring!

Ed

If you’d like to download a PDF of this “Ideas” column, click here:

Ideas from Ed 2025_May_universal_hosing.pdf

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