Needed elbows but only had tees

so I bought caps for the tees.

Is there any downside to this? Increased turbulence, maybe?

Turbulence, yes
Dead end on the pipe, yes

Are you soldering or sharkbiting?
Soldering is a way better way to go.

so long as you keep the stubs as short as possible, you won't create any possibility for stagnation in your potable lines, but you did just create an extra couple of possible leak points that didn't need to be there just for the sake of saving a few cents.

Yes, soldered them.

It's for the garden hose so it's non-potable.

I'm just now finding out how few ways there are to connect a new rigidly mounted pipe to existing piping that is rigidly mounted. It's very easy to "paint myself into a corner." You have to look ahead several moves.

QUOTE]It's for the garden hose so it's non-potable.[/QUOTE]

Unless its from a seperate source and is not connected to the rest of your plumbing then it is still potable. Your fine with the T's though.

You guys are a wealth of information!

Basement_Lurker said:

but you did just create an extra couple of possible leak points that didn't need to be there just for the sake of saving a few cents.

Click to expand...

plus I find out that caps only cap pipes, not tees, so I had to cut little stubs to mate with the caps.

If this 30' arrangement of pipes, elbows and couplers doesn't leak it will be a miracle but there is a valve upstream that only affects this hose bib so I can take my time fixing the leaks.

Thatguy said:

plus I find out that caps only cap pipes, not tees, so I had to cut little stubs to mate with the caps.

Click to expand...

No kidding. Why not just buy some elbows when you were at the store instead?

dlarrivee said:

No kidding. Why not just buy some elbows when you were at the store instead?

Click to expand...

I guess my logic was that I want to get rid of stuff in the basement that has been gathering dust for years and which I spent good money for, once.
But as the cost of the caps increases there would be some point at which I would buy elbows and throw out the tees or return them to "stock".
Also, working with the tees would have cost me more of my labor than they are worth.

If I were doing this job for pay for someone else I would have bought the elbows and minimized my solder joints and my risk that this assembly would leak.

Maybe I just wanted the soldering practice.

Since I did recover the money I spent on these tees this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs
probably does not apply, but, from this same link,
". . .many humans are loss-averse and thus normally act irrationally when making economic decisions."

I would have used plugs, and the water is only "non-potable" AFTER it goes through the hose faucet's backflow preventer, you do have those I hope.

hj said:

the hose faucet's backflow preventer, you do have those I hope.

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Yes. I hope it doesn't squeal and groan like the last two I had.

Usually it only happens when you don't shut the valve off and use water somewhere in the house.