There is a tap to shut of the cold water feed from the loft into the hot water tank. This tap has no handle on it, just a square lump that looks like a radiator key will fit onto it. (except it's bigger - 7mm ish). Doesn't appear to be any thread on this lump to which a handle was previously connected. My mate said he has a similar one on his hot water tank. What is this damn thing called!! I've scoured the SF catalogue and can't see anything like it. Tried looking round b+q on sat and couldn't see anything to fit it either. In the end I just shoved a bung in the tank in the loft and that shut off the water, but it's bugging me what it is I need to turn this tap off. Can anyone enlighten me? cheers
Is probably a gate valve. Someone has taken the top off to prevent it being turned off accidentally. If you cannot scrounge a spare top (about 2 inch dia wheel and red) you could buy a new valve and use the top off that. It probably wont shift anyway. Even by the standards of plumbing equipment gates and especially poor. Get someone to replace it with a 1/4 turn full bore lever valve. Good Luck.
tried all manner of adjustable spanners, pliers, and regular spanners. possibly a 7mm socket would have worked but didn't have one, and couldn't be arsed to go to b+q again. The tap is right at the back of the airing cupboard an you need to be a contortionist to reach it. Let alone replace the damn thing. The bizarre bit was there seemed to be no way to attach the wheel bit to the tap at all, no thread, no holes nothing. As I mentioned I stopped the water by pluging the tank with a rubber bung, it was one of those wine saver bungs you can pump the air out of a wine bottle with. Worked a treat on the tank, and is damn good at keeping wine fresh as well
I sympathise - it sounds like the same thing I struggled with in my loft. Am I right in thinking that you can't get an adjustable spanner on it because the "square lump" is surrounded by a sort of cylindrical cover? In the end I did it as follows: I found a socket whose square end (i.e. the end that you connect to the handle) exactly fitted the square lump. I then found an allen key that fitted the other end of the socket, connected them all together and turned it that way!