There are five diffrent types of water shut off valves. They are compression shut off valve, threaded shut off valve, sweat shut off valve, glue shut off valve, and the newest type a push on water valve.
Before you replace any water shut off valve, shut the water off at the main stop.
To keep this page from being to long and for ease of use, I included the compression guide and a brief reference to push on valves on this page and made the other types of water shut off valves on seperate pages under the related links tab to the left.
Push On Water Shut Off Valve
Push on water valves are the easiest valves to install. There is not much to installing them except making sure the pipe is clean and inserting it onto the pipe.
Compression Water Shut Off Valve
The compression shut off valve is the most common used today. It consist of three parts, the main body, the compression nut, and a ferrule. To remove a compression valve you need two pair of channel lock pliers(or equivalent).
Removing A Compression Shut Off Valve
Hold the main body with one pair and loosen the nut with the other pair. After taking off the main body you will see the ferrule blocking the nut from coming off the pipe.
The ferrule gets compressed between the main body and the compression nut clamping it on to the pipe. Once installed you proably wount be able to get the old ferrule off the pipe.
If you are installing a new compression stop it is usully ok to use the old ferrule and compression nut with the new shut off valve.