In terms of types of bores, ball valves could be divided into full port ball valves and reduced port ball valve. In this article, we will discuss the main differences between them.

Full Port Ball Valve

A full port ball valve, also known as a full bore ball valve, has the same internal bore size as the nominal pipe size. For example, a 2-inch full port ball valve has a 2-inch valve opening inside the ball. At the same time, its pipe internal dimension is also 2’’.

The biggest advantage is that it produces less resistance, friction and pressure drop when application flows through the valve. Thus, a full port ball valve is often used in application where pigging and low flow resistance is required, and a pressure drop can affect pipe performance.

However, a full port ball valve is often more expensive than a reduced-port ball valve, since it uses more materials in the manufacturing.

Reduced Port Ball Valve

A reduced port ball valve, also known as a standard port ball valve, has narrower and restricted flow path than the pipeline internal diameter. Specifically speaking, a 3/4” reduced port valve has a 1/2” pipe size ball opening.

Compared to full port ball valves, reduced port ball valves have a higher velocity, energy loss, pressure drop and friction on application. But they have their own strength. The more compact body leads to lower cost. Thus, if those applications have no strict demand on flow rate but higher requirement on material like full stainless body, the reduced port ball valve is an economical choice.