Replacing shutoffs, ball valve question

I am going to be replacing a lot of the old shut offs in the basement of our house, they barely turn and sure wouldn’t want to trust some of them in an emergency. Replacing the sillcocks this week so thought it would be a good time to cut back a little farther and replace at least all of those.

Just curious if there are any brands to avoid? Will most likely pick them up at one of the Home centers. I seem to recall a plumber friend of mine a few years ago telling me about some brand that he ended up replacing a bunch of just because they.. Weren't good.

Thanks guys

I bought some ball valves in HD that have a nice feature, and they were the same price as the others. They were Watts valves with union type ends that you can solder on without the ball valve in place, and then insert the valve. The lower mass without the valve body made it easier to get a good flow. Be sure to slip the nuts onto the pipe before soldering the end fitting.

The biggest help to my soldering was when I found Oatey #95 tinning flux. Try some.

ditto on the Oatey 95

In my area, the local Home Center carries Watts and Mueller ball valves. The Watts valves are manufactured in Asia whereas the Mueller valves are manufactured in Italy. I’ve installed a good number of these valves (Mueller) in my house without any problems. The workmanship seems to be good, but the walls thickness for the sweat type valves are a bit on the thin side. I’ve also installed a number of domestically manufactured Apollo ball valves which I believe are considered to be the “cream of the cropâ€. The Apollo valves I ordered from Grainger Supply so it wasn’t as easy a purchasing process as walking into a Home Center and walking out with what you want. The valves are beefier then either the Mueller or Watts valves but they don’t seem to be as nicely finished as the Mueller valves. This is probably nothing more then an aesthetic issue. As with Mueller valves there were no problems with soldering the Apollo valves. Everything worked fine, no leaks.

Thanks a lots for your crucial tips.