pipe breakage

[John A. Birdsall]

I know that nobody has had any pipes freeze and find out when they are opening that they have a pressing water problem. Well, we had it this year and ended at home depot.

We were buying couplings and a section of pipe, my son asked the man if their was anything we could use that does not require soldering. He showed us this brass device that you cut the pipe, clean the burrs of and push it on till it snaps. It is a bit pricey, however in a tight spot it does work great. I forget the name, but it covers up to a two inch splice. Cut out the splice and put it on. no drip, done in about 2 min.

[Weirs guy]

Aww come one John, no sense of adventure with soldering? :laugh:

If you have the opportunity and the time, a change over from copper to PEX, even in small sections at a time, is a good idea. PEX doesn't (or isn't supposed to anyway) split when it freezes, bends easy and with PEX X Compression fittings is easy to install. The only drawback is the crimping tool is a little pricey.

[ApS]

Thanks for the tip, JB.

After decades without any trouble, I had six "bursts" this year—all in a tiny, cramped space, of course. They're all soldered now, at some risk to burning the place down. :eek: Apparently, the concrete hot water heater base had settled (due to the rains and wet soil), pulling down the piping and setting up a series of low spots.

I'll go look for those splices for another season, but what's considered "pricey"?

[Sal]

Consider using small sections of appropriately sized garden hose segments, into which the cut off ends of the damaged pipe is inserted, and fastened securely by 2 circular stainless steel clamps.
My experience is that it does the job for both straight line and around the corner bursts.
No solder dripping on your face/clothing; no expensive new fangled fittings.

[Pineedles]

Aww, I always thought the solder was magic when it defied gravity and traveled uphill into the joint,:laugh:

[AC2717]

yes they are called "shark bites" I used them through my cottage when we did it over they are great, we used those, Pex tubing and CPVC tubing for everything, except the fill lines, and there we used the stainless steal braided lines. PEX will increase to twice its size before busting and the fittings allow the PEX to spin because of water pressure and also they are very easy to use, we plumbed the whole place in a day and then had it inspected by the town and they very very happy with what we did.