Hagrinas
New Member
I had a crack in my water inlet pipe. It's the blue polybutylene type, pb2110 sdr 13.5. It cracked about 8 inches from the end, where it went into a compression fitting that is 3/4" male at the other end and went into copper.
I went to my local hardware store to find out what to fix it with, and the person there sold me a black plastic pipe, which I presume is polyethylene, and I spliced in a replacement piece. Although both pieces were supposedly 3/4", the blue pipe was actually a bit thinner, so it was a pain to force the fitting in, and I had to replace the compression part, which was not a big deal.
The questions I have now in retrospect is whether what I did made sense, whether I'm likely to have problems in the future, and what to keep in mind down the road.
One problem was getting the fitting inside the blue plastic. To start off, I was able to get one end into the black plastic very easily by just dipping it in boiling water. With the blue plastic, I didn't have the option since it was in the ground, just a few inches below where it normally came out of the ground. I ended up taking a plastic drinking cup, drilling a hole in the bottom the exact size of the blue pipe, slipping it over it, and then pouring boiling water in. I ended up getting the thing forced down, but not all the way down. I was told to put two high quality hose clamps at each end, but I used only one at the blue end since the fitting was not down far enough that I felt a second one would help. But for now, nothing leaks.
If anything goes wrong, would there have been a better way to do this? It didn't occur to me at the time to put the original compression fitting underground and then just sweat in a new piece of copper and a female fitting. I don't know if doing that is even appropriate, or if building a box around it so the fitting is not buried would be more appropriate. If it fails because I screwed up, I can always try to get the fitting out, or just cut it 2 inches lower.
Is this the type of thing that is likely to cause trouble, should I just leave it alone unless it causes trouble, or am I just looking for trouble if I leave it? Would I have been better off using a heat gun to get the fitting in deeper, and if so, would it make sense to try now to make the connection better? or is there a better way or a more appropriate fitting?
BTW, the house was built in 1977 so a claim is not an option.
I went to my local hardware store to find out what to fix it with, and the person there sold me a black plastic pipe, which I presume is polyethylene, and I spliced in a replacement piece. Although both pieces were supposedly 3/4", the blue pipe was actually a bit thinner, so it was a pain to force the fitting in, and I had to replace the compression part, which was not a big deal.
The questions I have now in retrospect is whether what I did made sense, whether I'm likely to have problems in the future, and what to keep in mind down the road.
One problem was getting the fitting inside the blue plastic. To start off, I was able to get one end into the black plastic very easily by just dipping it in boiling water. With the blue plastic, I didn't have the option since it was in the ground, just a few inches below where it normally came out of the ground. I ended up taking a plastic drinking cup, drilling a hole in the bottom the exact size of the blue pipe, slipping it over it, and then pouring boiling water in. I ended up getting the thing forced down, but not all the way down. I was told to put two high quality hose clamps at each end, but I used only one at the blue end since the fitting was not down far enough that I felt a second one would help. But for now, nothing leaks.
If anything goes wrong, would there have been a better way to do this? It didn't occur to me at the time to put the original compression fitting underground and then just sweat in a new piece of copper and a female fitting. I don't know if doing that is even appropriate, or if building a box around it so the fitting is not buried would be more appropriate. If it fails because I screwed up, I can always try to get the fitting out, or just cut it 2 inches lower.
Is this the type of thing that is likely to cause trouble, should I just leave it alone unless it causes trouble, or am I just looking for trouble if I leave it? Would I have been better off using a heat gun to get the fitting in deeper, and if so, would it make sense to try now to make the connection better? or is there a better way or a more appropriate fitting?
BTW, the house was built in 1977 so a claim is not an option.