Aladdin EasyFit Isolator Valve and Tools Pack - Starter Kit

I fitted one of these to a 15mm copper central heating pipe running vertically: it was straightforward. I wanted to isolate the system 'downstream' without a full drain down. I had good access to the pipe. Having read the reviews and product description and viewed a video of an installation I concluded that care was needed. I cleaned the pipe of old paint thoroughly for a blemish free surface. I followed the instructions - which were clear and thorough - to the letter. My cordless drill was not powerful enough but a ratchet and socket were fine if slower. I decided not to use an older non-cordless drill that has no torque control because I wasn't sure I could control the vigour of the cutting. No leaks. The valve works perfectly. A clever, well designed and well engineered product.

I am a reasonable DiY person and even I found this to be very well made and very easy to install. You must follow the instructions very carefully and take your time. As a quick fix and to avoid draining down the system this unit is a must have addition. If you live in a old house and the plumbing is very old some stop valves may not work so this as a back up is ideal. You can install on a live pipe which is brilliant, just make sure you run the water to release some pressure. Highly recommended.

First off, this works. It really does, and it's solved a major problem for us that we couldn't get a plumber to come out to as they were all too busy. But, it's not as easy as they want you to believe and on the unit that we received there was a major flaw that took a bit of study and guesswork to resolve. Basically, there were no red dots on the housing to line the cutting blade up to. We have a very small WC in a workshop. The WC isn't used very often and the toilet, the flush mechanism and the whole shebang started dripping a while ago. A little drip turned into a bigger drip and a full on run and the overflow was going non stop. One of us made the best of it by adding a rocky fountain water feature to make it look like it was done on purpose but we decided to shut off the water and spend the day repairing it. Which is when the nightmare started! The water didn't shut off. In the photo I've attached there's the original stopcock coming from the concrete foundations. It's (we think) more than 50 years old and imperial pipe. The internal workings of the stopcock had failed, which we know is very common. Luckily for us, just beyond the stopcock someone had fitted modern thin walled 15mm pipe in a horizontal short straight section before the pipe splits off to the toilet and the basin taps. This bit of pipe was our target, so we cleaned it thoroughly and made sure all was OK. The initial part of the installation was easy, fitting the upper and lower parts of the housing around the pipe. Just make sure you do as the instructions state, go diagonally opposite with the screws to tighten them as you go. My Einhell drill did a good enough job to start with but because we were very restricted in space I switched to hand tightening so I could actually feel what's going on. That's what I'd do every time if I had to do this again and I'd abandon the drill from the off. Anyway, keep going. Don't do 1 - 3 - 2 - 4 then think that's it, it's not it, by now 1 will not be tight enough so go round again and make sure. I went round a few times, not overtightening to sheer the bolts, but just to make sure that there was a good pinch on the seals. So far so good. Now for the scary part which is drilling in the cutting section. I have an Einhell Pro range drill with a fully loaded 4.0Ah battery on full torque and it gave up after a few turns. It simply can't compete with the DeWalt £300 quid specials you see on the YouTube videos. I had to resort to a ratchet wrench which the instructions does mention you may have to. Here's the thing . . . the force needed to drive the cutting part through was immense. I had very limited space and could only get a small ratchet in there. It was really quite difficult and I had to try to hold the Aladdin from spinning with the force of the turning. I'm guessing that if I had been working in an easy to reach location and I could have used a much bigger wrench the job would have been a lot easier. After what felt like an eternity, and a few concerning drips along the way, the red line on the socket was lined up with the respective bit of the housing. On to the next stage - removing the collar and lining up the red dots. Mmm . . . there were 2 red dots on opposite sides of the cutting part that I'd been turning, but where could the red dot on the housing be? It was nowhere, there wasn't one. In turn, one by one, all of us looked for it. Nope, no red dot. Seriously, it was completely absent. The red dot on the cutting part was clear (both of them) but on the housing not a dot to be found. We ended up resorting to the YouTube videos again to get a fair idea of where the dots are supposed to line up, then we replicated that on the Aladdin. Having done this I held my breath and continued on and I was over the moon to find that the water shut off instantly that the handle was turned. Phew!! No leaks, no bust pipework, no overflow driving us mad. This isolator valve does work so I've bailed out the rest of the water in the cistern and can now set about repairing it with a new flush mechanism and fill pipe. One thing of note. The amount of effort required to get this in place has caused a couple of drips from pipework further down the line. I can and will sort that, but it's quite common for work in one part of a system to cause drips and leaks elsewhere. Be ready for it. Would I buy this again? Not if I could get a plumber out, but in an emergency or if there was genuinely no other way then yes, I would. For all the issues I've raised, the relief I've had from sorting out the leak and the chance to make the repairs makes up for it.

Fitted this on a short length of exposed mains water pipe where there was no chance of fitting a 'normal' valve. Important to read and understand the instructions before fitting, but do that and it's very straightforward. I had to use a small ratchet and socket because there was no room to wield an electric drill, which was physically quite hard but with a longer ratchet handle, would have been easier. When fitted, does it's job perfectly and absolutely no leaks or weeping. It's not cheap but it's a nice bit of engineering and certainly way cheaper than calling a plumber in.

First time I have been motivated to write a review on Amazon. This product seemed to be a great idea and a true problem solver. I read the instructions, watched and absorbed two videos which demonstrate installation. I then tried to fit this isolator to a live cold feed - total disaster. Impossible to tell if the clamp is fitted tightly enough, then the cutter refused to cut through the 15mm copper pipe and eventually seized up, not before causing a dramatic leak and a rush to the stopcock. Oh and the torque needed to get the cutter turning nearly broke the copper pipe and wrenched it off the wall. No chance I will ever buy or try this again. Disaster.

I have fitted a couple of these before, and was very happy overall. They were easy to fit, no leaks, water isolated without draining the system. All as advertised. Unfortunately, my recent experience wasn't as successful! During installation, water started to seep from the housing of the device. In the end, I had to shut off the mains water supply, cut out that section of pipe and fit a standard isolation valve. Maybe I was just unlucky, having had 2 that worked perfectly before, but this isn't the sort of thing that you can afford to have fail! Lessons learned... I won't be risking one of these again.

Absolutely easy to install, unless like me I had to install it in an awkward place. follow the instructions and it works perfectly, but be aware that the force required to cut the pipe is substantial and has to go through both sides of the pipe so in effect it happens trice.

Looked a great product and watching the video, very easy to fit and drill. The drilling of the 15mm pipe drew smoke from my dewalt drill so had to stop and start, in the end had to use a spanner instead. Not a true description of the fitting.

5 star, works as described.