Miguel

I was in the basement of an older home that'd been split into apartments. Many people had worked in this place over the years but the general vintage of the water dist. system was probably late 50's/early 60's.
I'd shut off the water and tied in a TEE for the CW feed to a new bathroom. I soldered a 3/4 x 1/2 TEE with a ball valve and then got the water on PDQ. The 3/4" line I'd tied into ran about 20' and thru a wall. It was hung up with hangers, clips, string and what-have-you. Once the water pressure was up I shook around my handiwork to make sure it was sound (quickee pressure test) when all of a sudden I hear a "clunk" and water spewing out double quick!!!
I shut the water off again and go to investigate. Had to call the landlord to get access thru the locked door to see behind the partition wall. At the end of the run was a 90 loking straight up that had blown off. On closer inspection I could see that the elbow had never been soldered! It was doped up but apparently the plumber back then had missed it with his torch. It was all green and crusty and the sand-cast ell was consistent with all the other fittings that I'd considered original to the premises.
It took some doing to clean and prep the copper but I soldered the old fitting back into place. I even considered going home to get this old thing:


Hard to believe that in all those years it never leaked a drop of water!

rocksteady

I went to a house because it was sold and there were a few plumbing issues on the home inspection that needed dealing with. One was a tiny drip found at a 1/2" elbow in the crawl space. I got down there with my solder stuff and cut the pipe about 6" from the elbow so I could sweat it off. When I grabbed it, it just pulled right off. I think the house was about 20 years old and probably just started dripping. No flux or solder on it at all. I was pretty amazed that it never blew off.





Paul

__________________
Rocksteady Plumbing
Serving San Luis Obispo County
(805) 237-7625 (ROCK)
http://rocksteadyplumbing.com/

Bollinger plumber

I have ran across this in both pvc and copper several times. How they hold I don't know but they do.

__________________
http://alsdrainservice.services.offi...m/default.aspx

Only two devining forces have died for you. One is Jesus Christ and the other is the American soldier. One died for your soul the other died for your freedom.

Bill

I ran cpvc in a house once, got done and charged it to 125 psi. The inspector came and passed it. Next day we came in and I was just about to release the pressure when WHAM! Sounded like someone smacked the side of the house with a 2x4. We walked around and found that I had forgotten to glue the stub out for the toilet. It sat with 125 in it for 3 days.

__________________
Virginia Plumbing Codes
Virginia Department of Licensing


Ones intellect can often be summed up by his own words

Everything in the known universe is governed by "Cause and Effect", there is no getting around it. Think about what you do before you do it.

futz

Several years ago we were getting really tight Pex pipe for quite a while. You had to really fight to get the 3/4 fittings together.

I had finished waterpipes in a new house on a Friday and turned on street pressure to give it a test over the weekend (street pressure is around 90 PSI here). Gave it a good once-over and went home.

Everything held fine till Sunday when the owner was sweeping up and a missed crimp on a Tee let go. Good thing he was there to shut the water off. Never before or since have I seen Pex hold that kind of pressure without crimping. It didn't even drip before it blew.

PLUMBER_BILL

__________________
Bill Parr LMP
www.parrsplumbing.com

click on ... A little of this and a little of that

Bill

Air, that was until I found out not to do it, Now all I use is street pressure with water.

__________________
Virginia Plumbing Codes
Virginia Department of Licensing


Ones intellect can often be summed up by his own words

Everything in the known universe is governed by "Cause and Effect", there is no getting around it. Think about what you do before you do it.

TheMaster

I didn't crimp a joint(helper didn't but I responsible) on an outside main service. It was pex.....it held without leaking enough to notice for 3 months before it finally came apart enough to show up and it was buried 6" below the ground. The ring was still on the pipe but not crimped...we uncovered and crimped it. Finished in 5 minutes.

PLUMBER_BILL

This testing with air on plastics has come up before, not necessarily on the zone. The best annology I ever heard was.
Take a balloon and blow it up to a seven inch diameter.
Then take another balloon fasten it to the end of a faucet and slowly fill
the balloon until it gets to be 7” in diameter. Tie the ends shut on both balloons. Now prick the one filled with water. You have a mess on the floor. Now prick the one filled with air. BAM you just had an explosion. Same could happen testing plastic with air.

I had a ISE Instant hot, no flow through the unit. Parr figured out I’d blow a little air from a blow gun backwards through he unit. This was a piece of plastic crap that ISE made. BOOM the tank went into a hundred little pieces. None penetrated my skin, I was lucky.

The following link is on Google -- before my time on the zone
Good Refresher. Air testing plastic supply lines

__________________
Bill Parr LMP
www.parrsplumbing.com

click on ... A little of this and a little of that

Cal

Same here ,, several times ! Pretty amazing !

__________________
"The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly."