I'm new here and have registered through desperation. I know very little about plumbing. I'm a girly living alone and think my plumbers are telling me rubbish. Any advice would be much appreciated as this is costing me a fortune.

Brief background. Always had high water pressure and water hammer problems. When my dad was alive he had turned the stopcock(traditional brass tap thing) to restrict the flow. That worked. No more water hammer.

In January brass stopcock started leaking. 50 years old. Phoned plumber. He replaced it but with a gate valve. I pointed out to him that it said on the packaging gate valves should not be fitted to the rising main but he assured me it was equally as good as the brass stopcock. So I believed him and paid up.

Then the water hammer re-started. I turned the gate valve to reduce flow and water hammer largely disappeared. Then I read on internet that gate valves should only ever be fully opened or fully closed and not used to restrict flow. So I opened the gate valve fully (again) and phoned another plumber.

The second plumber came out this week. He told me the gate valve was perfectly ok to use on the rising main and the cure for water hammer was to partially close it. Which he did. I didn't really believe him but paid up anyway.

So now I'm back where I started. No water hammer but terrified my gate valve is going to fall to bits by being half turned. So, what I want to know is this:-
- is it ok to fit a gate valve as a stopcock?
- is it ok to partially close a gate valve to reduce water pressure and remove water hammer?
- what other options are there to remove water hammer? Would a pressure reducing valve work?
- should I get a 3rd plumber out???

Yes, that was my understanding and that's what I've been telling my plumbers. So how come I've got 2 plumbers from 2 different firms telling me the gate valve is fine to use? I feel I'm going mad and nobody is listening to me.

If and when it goes wrong, then ask the next guy to install a proper stop cock which will comply with water regs. until then close it down and dont worry to much.

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