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Lead free brass pinholes

4K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  Dpeckplb 
#1 ·
Last week I had a trailer park we do work at called and had an underground water leak, I get the there and it was at a trailer riser that I repaired last spring 2014 with a lead free brass barb coupling, i grabbed the poly line and pulled it off the coupling with no effort. Both staggered gear clamps were tight on the pipe. I felt the inside of the pipe and I could feel where the barbs had grabbed the pipe. Upon reclaiming the coupling I noticed that the barbs had simply been dissolved.
I had a leak i repaired a month before before that the maintance man repaired a year ago out of a bag of couplings I had given him for times I'm not available(he is a 84 year old retired plumber). That coupling had a series of pin holes in it that at first I had just thought were because the gear clamps were touching the bass. He had told me after that it was only about a year since he had repaired it.
At the end of the day he brought me 4 other couplings I have replaced within the past year that have wore pin holes through.
Has anyone else had an issue with lead free brass fittings? I'm pridnear scared crapless as I have easily 300 joints through out three counties that I have done that are buried. I know I'm going to loose sleep over this and I hope that this place isan isolated case because in a small town bad word spreads really fast.
 
#4 ·
100psi poly pipe, use the great clamps to tighten the pipe to the barb. That is the industry standard in these parts. I'd rathe use system 160 series with corporation fittings how ever I'd be sitting home not making any money. Although now the company might be loosing money so it's a catch 22. This trailer park is on municipal water. The area that has been mostly affected has had questionable electrical work done. I hate to play the blame game but I'm wondering if there could possibly be a bad ground or stray current that is causing these failures.
 
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#9 ·
We are an electrical company aswell. I think I should discuss that possibility. The area where all of these leaks have occurred had 9 or 10 panels replaced by a different electrical contractor. Our bid was higher, our boss usually tries to bid contracts high so we don't get them because he has a trailer there. He doesn't want to put up with other residents calling conflict of interest. It is possible that either the electrical company took the coating off of a wire underground. (they cut off and capped a sewer that served 20 trailers).
 
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