Stainless ball valve split

[LMP Maple]

Went to boil last night, dumped the first bucket in my head tank went down to double check my stainless supply line and found my stainless ball valve had split and was leaking. This is my second year with this rig and I have broken it down the same way every time I boil and never had this issue. I assume this was frozen water that expanded and caused the failure. Has anyone experienced this? I always drain the supply line and clear the water or so I thought. I could go to a ball valve with sanitary fittings on each side and take it in each night but would rather avoid that. Is it better to leave the fitting open or closed when not in use or does it matter?

[DrTimPerkins]

Some ball valves trap liquid INSIDE the ball when they are closed. If it freezes hard, they'll spit. Drill a small hole in the ball on the outside close to the bottom edge to let it drain when closed or use a gate valve instead.

[LMP Maple]

Thank you, Dr. Tim. I will do that with the replacement valve.

[Father & Son]

I don’t remember where I heard it but I was told to leave ball valves in the half open half closed position after draining to prevent trapped liquid. I’ve tried to remember to do this and have not had a valve failure yet. Knock on wood!

[VT_K9]

We (I for the blame sake) heard about drilling a hole in the ball valve to help drain the "slug" of water from the valve. It resulted in a quick change of the valve when we opened it. In our case the valve leaked through the hole when the valve was open. It was my idea I read about here and it just did not work.

If the valve does not need to hold fluid back then I would leave it open. If the valve does and there is a potential for freeze I would plug the source and drain the valve before leaving it closed. I use this method at our storage tanks (leave the plug in the bottom of the tank) and it works well.

Mike

[maple flats]

On some of my set ups in the woods, if I had a valve that needed to be closed I had two valves in series. I then closed the first valve, second valve open and drain the sap completely then close valve 2 and open valve 1. That never failed to protect the valves. I never tried drilling a hole in one side of the ball. It just seemed to me that a hole there would leave a rough area around the hole to damage the seal as the valve was opened and closed. The 2 valves in series worked flawlessly.