Gate Valves

These valves are pretty much the same as any faucet knob that you may have around your house. You manually turn them to open up a "gate" for water to flow or not. A common problem with gate valves is that the packing around the valve causes leaking around the shaft of the valve. Because of this, they often leak air and water. This can be fixed with plumbers tape. Also water chemistry can cause the gates to eventually wear out after years of use and it's difficult to open and close them. A more thorough and long lasting repair would be to replace the entire gate valve itself.