Water line to garage repair

[Jordan_T]

Hi all,

Looking for a little help with a water line repair. It runs from the back of the house to the garage. Was an old leaky steel or cast iron pipe from the 70's, I couldn't tell through the rust so removed the whole thing.

First question:

Any reason I shouldn't use an apollo pex to replace the old line? I'm a little worried about the PSI only 160 max depending on temperate.

Second Question

Looking at the attached photos what would you do here? Any part recommendations? or installation methods for new parts? I believe that threaded attachment is 1" and the Apollo Pex I have is 3/4 inch which I picked because that was the size of the old pipe.

Thanks for any help or advice you can provide.

 

[James Henry]

That part hanging down below the valve is the other half of a dielectric union. It's now useless. Cut the old valve off. If you can't solder install a sharkbite valve and go from there. The pressure to your house will never reach 160 psi.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[WorthFlorida]

You have copper at the spigot and copper to the old union. What you are referring to for the 1" is a garden hose, not pipe size. Somewhere inside the garage did it change from galvanized pipe to copper? That is usually not done unless a previous owner did it to add the tee behind the spigot. A picture would be helpful to be sure you're doing things right.

Do as James Henry suggest, the down pipe to the union is no longer needed. It probably feed an irrigation system or another spigot somewhere in the yard such as a garden patch. You also can cut out all the insulation wrap since I do not believe Austin rarely would ever go below freezing. It probably was used to plug up the hole in the wall to prevent varmints or snakes entering the house.

 

[Jordan_T]

You have copper at the spigot and copper to the old union. What you are referring to for the 1" is a garden hose, not pipe size. Somewhere inside the garage did it change from galvanized pipe to copper? That is usually not done unless a previous owner did it to add the tee behind the spigot. A picture would be helpful to be sure you're doing things right.

Do as James Henry suggest, the down pipe to the union is no longer needed. It probably feed an irrigation system or another spigot somewhere in the yard such as a garden patch. You also can cut out all the insulation wrap since I do not believe Austin rarely would ever go below freezing. It probably was used to plug up the hole in the wall to prevent varmints or snakes entering the house.

Thanks so much for the response, attached a few photos of the garage hook up, I believe you are right and this was an addition. I attached a picture of the old part they had screwed into the valve that is the other half of that dielectric union. It was steel galvanized pipe and I tried just using a sharkbite slip coupling on it but it leaked. However, I do think this was from the angle of the pex pulling on it, I will probably need to use an elbow to get a straight angle.

Any idea if I cut right about that valve that is no longer needed, what size and type of connector I will need?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Jordan_T]

That part hanging down below the valve is the other half of a dielectric union. It's now useless. Cut the old valve off. If you can't solder install a sharkbite valve and go from there. The pressure to your house will never reach 160 psi.

Thank you for the reply James. Any idea what size and connector I would need if I cut off that valve? It looks pretty narrow, maybe 1/4 inch? I am not sure how to solder so using a shark bite would be ideal but I can't seem to find any that are 1/4 to 3/4 conversions. The 3/4 coming from the pex size I have.

 

[James Henry]

Thank you for the reply James. Any idea what size and connector I would need if I cut off that valve? It looks pretty narrow, maybe 1/4 inch? I am not sure how to solder so using a shark bite would be ideal but I can't seem to find any that are 1/4 to 3/4 conversions. The 3/4 coming from the pex size I have.

measure the outside diameter of the pipe. Theirs no way for me to tell what size it is from a picture. install a shark-bite ball valve. make sure you sand the sharp burrs off the pipe where you cut it before you slide the valve on or you'll damage the o-ring in the valve.

 

[James Henry]

you need to apply thread sealer or Teflon tape around all threaded fittings or they will leak.

 

[Jordan_T]

you need to apply pipe sealer or Teflon tape around all threaded fittings or they will leak.

Thank you James, I measured and it looks to be 1/2 inch.

Two final quick questions:

1. I can't seem to find a ball valve that doesn't need soldering that can convert the 1/2 inch copper pipe to the 3/4 inch pex. Can I just swap out the 3/4 inch pex with 1/2 inch pex? The 3/4 inch was what the original pipe was so I just kept this.

2. Is it possible to cut the copper below the existing valve and keep that and just use a slip coupling?

so basically if I were to step by step this:

Garage attachment
1. Tape or seal the male adapter connecting to the garage

House hook up
1. Locate and turn off the water supply source
2. Cut the copper pipe above the existing valve
3. Sand burrs
4. Sand burrs on pex
5. Install the new sharkbite ball valve
6. turn water supply back on and done?

Am I missing anything?

 

[James Henry]

The out side diameter of galvanized pipe is a lot bigger than copper pipe that's why it looks like 3/4" pipe. if the valve works, keep it.
cut the dielectric union off and either keep the 3/4" pex and use a 3/4" x 1/2" shark-bite reducer or run 1/2" pex. its just a garage. your choice.
Easy Peasy.