Gate or Ball valves?

[JohnK]

hey matt,

where do you get a better quality ball valve? Can you say anymore about what the better ball valves are like? how is the ball adjusted?

Just curious, thanks

 

[soccer4life94]

My answer is plain and non-technical. Gate valves are easier to adjust. I have tried both on mine and other setups and the Gate allow a much easier adjustments at the smallest degree over a Ball valve. So...its all what you like. We can all display facts and figures to reach our own opinion. Sometimes things dont need to be so technical...sometimes its just as simple as what do you wanna turn to shut the water off! lol

 

[Matt L.]

hey matt,

where do you get a better quality ball valve? Can you say anymore about what the better ball valves are like? how is the ball adjusted?

Just curious, thanks

Hmmm.... I haven't really looked yet, but I am interested in finding some ball valves better than the ones at Home Depot (or even better yet, globe valves) suitable for saltwater service.

Matt

 

[Matt L.]

My answer is plain and non-technical. Gate valves are easier to adjust. I have tried both on mine and other setups and the Gate allow a much easier adjustments at the smallest degree over a Ball valve. So...its all what you like. We can all display facts and figures to reach our own opinion. Sometimes things dont need to be so technical...sometimes its just as simple as what do you wanna turn to shut the water off! lol

I think you're kind of missing the point of my argument.

My objection regards the misconception floating around in the reef community that gate valves are better for modulating flow than ball valves. This is an incorrect statement. You are, however, correct in claiming that the position gate valves we see in this hobby are easier to adjust than the ball vlaves from Home Depot. This is a very fine distinction.

The suitability of a valve to modulate flow has to do with the internal geometry of the valve orifice. The ease with which a valve can be adjusted has to do with the handwheel (or for us, knob), and not the type of valve. There are easya nd difficult to adjust gate valves, and easy and difficult to adjust ball valves.

In case this is still confusing, allow me to give you a metaphor. Let's say you need to hang a picture on your wall, but you don't know whether you should drive a nail or set a screw. The distance must be done very precisely so that the picture hangs just right. You have a nail, and an oversized hammer. You can set the nail in the wall reasonably well witht he hammer, but you really can't fine tune the distance in. This is your gate valve. You also have the choice of setting a screw. A screw can be set very precisely, but you go to your tool box, and low and behold, you have a really crappy screw driver. It isn't the right size for the screw, the shaft is bent, etc. This is your commercially available ball valve. As many reefers have done, they've simply thrown the screwdriver back in the toolbox, taken the screw out of the wall, and gone and set the nail instead. This doesn't mean that nails are better than screws for hanging something a precise distance from the wall.

I hope this helps,

Matt

 

[Piscevore]

I think by waxing metaphorical, you've hit the nail on the head (to be cliche).

Neither is better in the high price ranges they seem to perform equally well, and in the low ranges they both kinda suck.

i think usplastics.com has some pretty good examples of everything. The globes are very pricey (@100+ dollars for 1.5" valve) and the gates aren't much better.
The ball valves at HD are very tight and stiff, and from several people I have heard microadjustment is difficult. I'll be keeping all of this in mind as I start to purchase items to plumb my tank, and I'll probably purchase from the middle of the road, avoiding 4 dollar valves and 100 dollar valves.

This discussion is surprisingly more complex than I had anticipated, and I appreciate everyone's experiences and comments!