Those annoying ball valve sliding lock things

[Hwk-I-St8]

What do you do with 'em? Anybody actually want them there?

I've never felt like I needed to have my valves locked into open or closed position. They don't move on their own.

The sliding lock things are really annoying. Do you take them off? Tape 'em out of the way? Any other suggestions?

 

[unviewtiful]

I ripped them off all my ball valves. They don't seem like a good idea for hot applications, and like you said the valves don't open or close on their own.

 

[sillbeer]

I cut one off that I use to have. I bought several ball valves from Bobby M. and none of them have the slider lock on them.

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/2pbv.htm

The picture shows it installed but none of mine came with them.

 

[day_trippr]

Totally agree. I removed the pita sliders from every ball valve I have - including the ones I bought from Bobby.
Life is good

Cheers!

 

[augiedoggy]

I removed many of mine as well... I use a lot of 3 way valves and dont recall those having them though..

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

How did you remove them?...just rip 'em off with a pliers?

 

[augiedoggy]

How did you remove them?...just rip 'em off with a pliers?

I believe mine might have slid off once I removed the handle? its been awhile.. I might have pryed them open to remove them too.

 

[sillbeer]

I removed the handle then had to use a die grinder. It was kind of a pain.

 

[augiedoggy]

I pryed mine open from the bottom and then slid them off.. still had one sitting in my junk tray with nuts and bolts .

 

[Scout]

Those are lockouts, not needed except in industrial applications where you would want to padlock it for safety reasons.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I have 2-way 3pc valves from Blichmann, brewhardware.com and another store whose name escapes me at the moment.
I was able to remove the slider/lock thingies from all of them by using a stout screwdriver blade to pry the two ends away from the underside of the handle until they could be slipped off (had to remove the vinyl grips first).

Gotta say Bobby's valves had the sturdiest locks. Almost had to get out the Dremel with a cutting disk for those...

Cheers!