Trying to get into the habit of exercising every valve on my property at least once per year so that they’ll still work when I actually need them.
That now includes 9 valves in the pond. Still kicking myself a bit for putting some of them in the pond in hard to access locations. If you’re reading this and still designing your pond, don’t do that! Put them right at the edge if you can. And on the edge you access most frequently. Or even outside the pond.
But if you’ve already screwed up like me, build yourself one of these for about $10:
Just like a meter key for your house water, but for pvc ball valves.
Requires about 5’ of pipe, a tee fitting, a coupling, and some glue. You only need to glue the vertical joints where the torque is applied.
Stick the coupling on the end and cut a slot in it the width of your valve handles and 1/2 the depth of the coupling. Glue it on with the slots matching the orientation of your handle so it’s easier to seat onto a valve you can’t see well.
This thing will turn very stuck valves without breaking the handles, which is a common problem for pvc valves.
Most of my valves are 2”. My local hardware store didn’t have any hard 90 fittings in 2”, so I went with 1.5” pipe and a reducer coupling
