Aladdin EasyFit Isolator Review
Newly renovated house with no isolation valves anywhere, and I mean anywhere. stopcock in the street was freshly tarmaced over as were the rest of the houses on the block, the supply came in directly under the front door-step and ran under the boards and staircase with the internal stopcock entombed somewhere along the way with a fitted wooden floor on top.
So, it's late in the afternoon and I've got three sets of taps to change - ground floor kitchen sink and upstairs bath and basin. There's no way I'm going to start guessing where to begin digging up the tarmac and the customer is so proud of their new wooden floor it's just not worth mentioning it. Even if I had a freeze kit, that would be out of the question so the Aladdin EasyFit Isolator kit it is:
Earlier today before going to the job I knew I'd be using it so watched and rewatched the installation video a few times and double checked I wasn't missing any do's and don'ts in the manufacturer's instructions. This is something I'd recommend anyone do before fitting one of these for the first time.
Found a nice siting location in the understairs cupboard where the main feed - well clipped with talons and clearly 15mm and not imperial because new pipework throughout - came out the floor and up the wall so got straight on it by clamping the housing round it using the supplied driver bit at about chest height and made sure it was solid. Swapped the driver bit for the socket (these were supplied in the seperate fitting pack btw) and double-checked the cordless was in low gear with maximum clutch on. Have to admit that I had to take a few deep breaths to calm my nerves at this point with back up plans going through my head should anything go wrong.
At first, driving home the cutter-plug was smooth then suddenly began to vibrate a little and kind of grind but I was expecting that and didn't stop until the red line on the socket lined up with the collar. The nice shiny collar has no further purpose so that just gets binned which seems a shame but what can you do? I then noticed the red dots weren't perfectly aligned so popped the socket back on and nipped it round with my pump pliers, binned the other bits - retainer and plastic thing, pushed the spindle in and turned it.
Went round checking the taps and got nothing except for the kitchen which had quite a bit of water come out - but it was being fed from a drop so the Aladdin had indeed done its job so finished by screwing on the lever handle. No leaks, dry as a bone and then I got on with what I went to do in the first place, fit the new taps.
Verdict:
Spot on well-engineered piece of (heavy) kit that does exactly what it says on the tin. At first I had reservations about the price but now think it's well worth it for the potential hassle it saved me tonight. I'd recommend any plumber to pick one of these up to keep as part of their stock a.s.a.p. Writing this review was much more work and time-consuming than actually fitting it.
Oh and cheers to our resident forum sponsor Ray Stafford for sending me this freebie for testing. 🙂
________________________________________
I did take pics on my mobile but they're just too dark to make out and not very interesting anyway to be honest as it's just a valve on a pipe really. I'll be returning to the house on another job soon so will try to get a decent pic.
Newly renovated house with no isolation valves anywhere, and I mean anywhere. stopcock in the street was freshly tarmaced over as were the rest of the houses on the block, the supply came in directly under the front door-step and ran under the boards and staircase with the internal stopcock entombed somewhere along the way with a fitted wooden floor on top.
So, it's late in the afternoon and I've got three sets of taps to change - ground floor kitchen sink and upstairs bath and basin. There's no way I'm going to start guessing where to begin digging up the tarmac and the customer is so proud of their new wooden floor it's just not worth mentioning it. Even if I had a freeze kit, that would be out of the question so the Aladdin EasyFit Isolator kit it is:
Earlier today before going to the job I knew I'd be using it so watched and rewatched the installation video a few times and double checked I wasn't missing any do's and don'ts in the manufacturer's instructions. This is something I'd recommend anyone do before fitting one of these for the first time.
Found a nice siting location in the understairs cupboard where the main feed - well clipped with talons and clearly 15mm and not imperial because new pipework throughout - came out the floor and up the wall so got straight on it by clamping the housing round it using the supplied driver bit at about chest height and made sure it was solid. Swapped the driver bit for the socket (these were supplied in the seperate fitting pack btw) and double-checked the cordless was in low gear with maximum clutch on. Have to admit that I had to take a few deep breaths to calm my nerves at this point with back up plans going through my head should anything go wrong.
At first, driving home the cutter-plug was smooth then suddenly began to vibrate a little and kind of grind but I was expecting that and didn't stop until the red line on the socket lined up with the collar. The nice shiny collar has no further purpose so that just gets binned which seems a shame but what can you do? I then noticed the red dots weren't perfectly aligned so popped the socket back on and nipped it round with my pump pliers, binned the other bits - retainer and plastic thing, pushed the spindle in and turned it.
Went round checking the taps and got nothing except for the kitchen which had quite a bit of water come out - but it was being fed from a drop so the Aladdin had indeed done its job so finished by screwing on the lever handle. No leaks, dry as a bone and then I got on with what I went to do in the first place, fit the new taps.
Verdict:
Spot on well-engineered piece of (heavy) kit that does exactly what it says on the tin. At first I had reservations about the price but now think it's well worth it for the potential hassle it saved me tonight. I'd recommend any plumber to pick one of these up to keep as part of their stock a.s.a.p. Writing this review was much more work and time-consuming than actually fitting it.
Oh and cheers to our resident forum sponsor Ray Stafford for sending me this freebie for testing. 🙂
________________________________________
I did take pics on my mobile but they're just too dark to make out and not very interesting anyway to be honest as it's just a valve on a pipe really. I'll be returning to the house on another job soon so will try to get a decent pic.
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