The main water valve on the street.
City water shut off valve types.
The picture below shows a typical water meter cover found in cities and counties across the u s.
Shutoff valves allow you to work on a faucet or other fixture without having to shut off the water to the whole house at the main shutoff valve.
A ball valve is a large metal valve usually featuring a lever handle.
One that the city controls outside of your house and one that you can control inside the house.
The city s valve is always located on the street side of your water meter often near the edge of your yard.
Externally fixture shutoff valves resemble small gate valves since they usually have a small knob or wheel that turns to open and close the valve.
In warm weather climates the water meter and main water shutoff valve will be located in the curbside box as just described or it could be attached to an exterior wall.
The valve is open when the lever is parallel to the water flow and closed when it s perpendicular.
This automatic water shut off valve can be combined with wally hub and wally sensors not included in price that will on detecting any leakage shut off the water supply immediately.
Water valve shut off types are all designed to stop the flow of water.
For typical city dwellings there are actually two main shut off valves.
It is designed for quick turn off since the valve opens and closes full with a short 1 4 turn of the lever handle.
Several considerations dictate which is the best water shut off valve for your needs including the size of the inlet diameter and outlet diameter as well as how the valve is operated.
This is the type of valve often seen at the main water shutoff for the home.
Once again if there are two valves one on each side of the meter either one should work but the city prefers you shut off the one on the house side of the meter.
With the cover off you can see the water meter and the county s cutoff valve to the left.
Ball valves can also be large the main shutoff valve for the house is often a ball valve located on the street.
Washered type water shut off valves are the ones you find most often.
That s where the main water shut off valve comes into play.
The washer closes down on a metal seat via the handle and shuts the water off.
Barbed water shut off valves are a type of valve used with pex water supply piping.
Pex also can use a compression fitting which allows standard tools for installation.
They come in different sizes and shapes but the general way they work is the same.
The problem is that the washers wear out and don t shut off properly.
In the event your inside main water valve fails there s one final backstop you can operate to shut off water to the house.
Barbed fitting stop valve.