manual ball valves

Select and buy a manual ball valve online for your application. Manual ball valves are used to control the flow of a media, liquid or gas, by means of a rotating ball with a bore. They are one of the most common valves due to their simple operation, reliability, long service life, and wide range of application uses. Common manual ball valves are either 2-way or 3-way.

• 2-way ball valves have 2 ports, an inlet and an outlet. The media flows from one direction to the other and the valve is used to open or close the flow. A 2-way ball valve is commonly called a shut off valve.
• 3-way ball valves have 3 ports. The bore in the ball is not straight, but rather in an L or T formation. This allows for various circuit functions (flow directions) for the valve. It can be used to distribute, mix, or divert flow in the desired direction. Therefore, any of the 3 ports can be an inlet or an outlet.

Manual operation

The ball valve is operated manually by the turn of a handle. The lever only needs to turn a quarter turn (90 degrees) to alter the media flow and it is directly connected to the ball through the valve stem. For a 2-way valve, the handle should be inline with the bore in the ball. Therefore, when the handle direction is parallel to the connecting pipe or hose, the valve is open and allows media to flow through. When the handle direction is perpendicular to the connecting pipe or hose, the valve is closed and media is not allowed to flow through. This makes it easy to visually know if the valve is open or closed. For a 3-way valve, it depends if you have an L-port or T-port to know the media circuit when the handle is moved.

For additional information to select a ball valve, read our technical article or contact customer support.