Cheap water valves

[BetterSense]

I want to run a pipe across the splash guard of my sink and have multiple hoses coming off of it. I don't know what pipe to use...galvanized steel? Copper? PEX? Also,I don't mean to be cheap but brass ball valves are like $15 each. Is there a cheaper alternative? And I haven't found any of those tapered hose barbs that you see for gas lines; all the ones for water are straight.

[Vaughn]

Junk yard?

[Jim Noel]

I have had three faucets along my 10' line for about 20 years. the line is PVC and had never given me any problem. each of the faucets has a 1/2" hose from it. One of the faucets has both hot and cold water, and the rest have only cold.

[Robert Perrin]

Harbor Freight has brass ball valves currently listed at $5.99 for 1/2" and $7.99 for 3/4".

[Nathan Potter]

Well, don't mess around with cheap valves. I use Whitey, or equivalent, stainless steel needle valves or bellows valves - whatever I can get cheap on ebay. These are lower flow capacity built for precision, maybe in the range of 1 to 4 liters per minute of liquid. Typically have threads of 1/4 to 1/2 inch NPT and so can be adapted to common 1/2 inch PVC threaded fittings. I use barbed fittings at the output to Tygon tubing.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[bigdog]

PVC and brass hose bibs. Cheap. Home Depot.

http://newdr.blogspot.com/2010/10/done-almost.html

[IanMazursky]

I have bought most of my darkroom plumbing from McMaster Carr.
They have a huge selection of valves and tubing. I went with a ½” clear PVC tubing with reinforcement.
They sell inexpensive ½” to garden hose adapters that fit my sink. The tubing is under $1 per foot and its working perfectly.
It handles over 100F for color just fine. They have lots of barbed fittings, plastic ones are very cheap and they seem to last.
I did buy a couple of garden hose valves from Home Depot. They’re not that bad and they were under $10.

[Tom Monego]

I used a shower valve that I had go into a 1 inch pipe which i had an Arkay rotary thermometer coming out of. Worked well held temperature well unless someone else was using water. Could get a good approximate temperature. The Kodak precision hand thermometer was the real temp.
Still have the Arkay thermometer in a box in my attic.

Tom

[Allen in Montreal]

I bought a few cheapie splitters for wash water.
Big mistake, they leaked in no time, I could not turn the valves all the way and then I started to see little bits of yellow green "puss" that formed as the cheap chrome finish deteriorated and were breaking loose and making their way into the gravity works film washer!

A really good bronze unit was only a few dollars more.

[BetterSense]

I would REALLY like to get a hold of a 1-handle type shower valve so that I could adjust from full hot to full cold with 1 knob, but those valve bodies are like $75.