Can't get the valves off my steel tanks

[rjack321]

Big cheap wrench 24" is heavy AF and you might still need a mallet because its so hard to hold the tank sometimes.

 

[Still Kicking]

If all else fails, 24" wrench and 24"+ cheater bar ..... but brass is on the softer end of the spectrum so it's possible to wreck the valve this way.

Do not hit the valves directly with the mallet - it's easy to bend the valve stem and then you have to overhaul the valve.

If all pressure is definitely out of the tank, then a wrench with greater torque is really your only option.

Makeshift tank vise .... ratchet strap and a stout tree.

 

[BRT]

I'm going to stop by the shop in the morning. I guess I will offer to buy a BIG wrench ? To be honest the shop really didn't want me to dive my own gear from the beginning. Sometimes I miss Florida...

Where are you in Mexico? I own a big adjustable wrench and a hammer in Mexico that I bought for that purpose. The air shop in Puerto Morelos doesn't believe in lubricant and it can be tough to get their valves off.

 

[happy-diver]

Never wrenches, I stopped listening to the shop guy that was taught by the previous shop guy, decades ago
If it's stuck take off the knob and give the valve a few taps with a plastic mallet and if it needs more whack it
With soft knobs, I tap the knob or whack it, and it is very rare that I break a spindle, and if I do it was its time

 

[Alekseolsen]

Hmm, why not use the valve removal tool and a mallett?

Screws right into the DIN-threads

 

[Gone for diving]

Great if you have one....

Now we will have someone thread in an 8inch pipe nipple and screw everything up.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Hmm, why not use the valve removal tool and a mallett?

View attachment 852811


Screws right into the DIN-threads

Thin-walled brass in that area is not that strong. If the valve is as tight as he says, all that application of that much force on that tool may likely either rip the valve in half (or likely deform the threaded DIN fitting) or bend the tool, depending on the alloy it's made from.

I carry one of those tools with me so if the tank turkeys tighten up the hand-tightened valve on my pony I can hopefully get it offbefore packing it for the flight home. But it is strictly for valves tightened properly, not over-torqued or frozen in place.

The only reason I carry that is because it's easier to pack than a big crescent wrench.

 

[tbone1004]

if the technician doesn't have the correct wrench to remove a valve then I'm not sure he's a really proper technician.... Valves get stuck all the time, and the vast majority of valves have a flat spot to put a wrench because there are actual torque specs to use with a crows foot wrench to install them. Lubricant should also not be used when installing valves per the manufacturers installation manuals. Most technicians will have the appropriate sized wrench and just give it a love tap with a dead blow hammer and they come right off

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

If all else fails, 24" wrench and 24"+ cheater bar ..... but brass is on the softer end of the spectrum so it's possible to wreck the valve this way.

Do not hit the valves directly with the mallet - it's easy to bend the valve stem and then you have to overhaul the valve.

If all pressure is definitely out of the tank, then a wrench with greater torque is really your only option.

Makeshift tank vise .... ratchet strap and a stout tree.

Yes, forgot to mention and thank you for bringing it up:
DO NOT DIRECTLY HIT THE VALVE EVER!
Only hit the wrench handle after the wrench has been adjusted to fit well with no slop on the lowest part of the valve down by the tank neck, not up high across the air inlet. I’ve seen this too.
Just snug is all 3/4” O-ring valves ever need, no more than that.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I’ve also wrestled on the ground with tanks laying on a little piece if carpet trying to get a wrench on them, holding them with my legs trying to stop them from spinning. In a perfect world a torsion cylinder strap with a long bar is used to hold the tank.