Compression shutoff leak, angle on joint, and leaky packing nut

[Gtomike06]

Had some pipes break during the freeze and was lucky enough to only feed some water spigots. Hadn't sweated any copper in years since the last house was converted to PEX. Sweated a shutoff upstream and got the house back on. Finally found all the stuff to fix it and have had a small leak from under the kitchen sink on a valve stem on a compression type shutoff and decided to replace em all. Cut the ferrules off and put all new on but left the old indented pipe. Sure enough the same one was leaking from behind the compression nut. Always buy extra so I cut the pipe off cleaned and put another one on. Didn't leak all yesterday and this morning I found 2 drops of water from under it. Now it looks like its leaking from the threads going into the nut.... I put about an 1/8 turn on it this morning but I did notice the other 2 look like the nut is on further. Don't wanna overdo it but geez I got this sucker super tight now but what's weird is the nut doesn't want to tighten down more but I can more easily tighten the valve side of it if that makes sense. Do I just keep tightening it till it quits leaking? Also if this one fails id almost rather go with a solder shutoff but I know how prone to failing these are and worry about soldering on and off every couple years. Realistic worry?


Also when I was repairing the leak in the attic instead of standing on my head in the attic I just cut a section out and took it to the garage and built it but when I got back up there I shoulda soldered it backwards of how I did because the shutoff valve lengthened the one side and now where the fitting went together its angles don't match up exactly perfect. It held all night and seems solid. I whacked on it with a pair of Kleins to see if it would give up but it held. I know I got it all the way in there because I measure depth everytime. Is a stress on the pipe going to make it failure prone?

Hopefully this is my easiest leak, the packing nut on the shutoff I installed to get the water back on. Must have overheated it when I tried like heck not to but the water was on to one side of the valve so I had to solder the other side closed but did that before I put it all together so it wouldn't build pressure. I noticed a small water drop by the packing nut overnight. Not even enough to drip down but enough for the OCD to kick in. I put a small turn on it this morning but if I did overcook the packing I have no problem turning the house water off and pulling the top off to hopefully replace it? I've always just replaced the whole valve when I've had a bad one but I prefer not to unsolder and re solder. I bought 2 of em so I have the exact valve I could take the guts out of but I can't find much online about replacing ball valve packing. Mainly stuff for gate valves. If the tightening the nut doesn't fix it is replacing the packing feasible?


Thanks for the help.

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

With your compression angle stop leaking at the 5/8 compression nut.. You might take it apart and see what it all looks like. Sometimes in manufacturing, bits of the thread that gets cut away remains and will bind up. I usually add a single wrap of teflon tape to the male threads of the valve to reduce the friction of the nut on those threads.

Copper solder joints are a mystery. When you are soldering in ideal conditions, you can see it all go together and you know its good.. but you don't know, because you can't see beyond what is visible on the exterior.. So you have to trust your work. I've seen joints that were only fluxed on the outside with only an 1/8th in of solder hold for years and years..

No clue on your packing dilemma

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

Sure enough the same one was leaking from behind the compression nut. Always buy extra so I cut the pipe off cleaned and put another one on. Didnt leak all yesterday and this morning I found 2 drops of water from under it. Now it looks like its leaking from the threads going into the nut.... I put about an 1/8 turn on it this morning but I did notice the other 2 look like the nut is on further. Dont wanna overdo it but geez I got this sucker super tight now but whats weird is the nut doesn't want to tighten down more but I can more easily tighten the valve side of it if that makes sense.

Your wrenches may be too short for you to give adequate tightening.

I suggest loosening the nut, and putting some lube on the threads. That lets you tighten more with your short wrenches.

Lube could be plumber's grease, pipe dope, or even dishwashing liquid.

If you are worried about crushing the pipe, get over it. If you are cross-threaded, that would screw things up.


Your photo does not show your valve.

 

[Gtomike06]

Your wrenches may be too short for you to give adequate tightening.

I suggest loosening the nut, and putting some lube on the threads. That lets you tighten more with your short wrenches.

Lube could be plumber's grease, pipe dope, or even dishwashing liquid.

If you are worried about crushing the pipe, get over it. If you are cross-threaded, that would screw things up.


Your photo does not show your valve.

Yea I didnt have a picture of the valve. The leak appears to be pretty dang slow since yesterday it didn't leak at all and then this morning I saw 2 drops under it. Thought it was good till I woke up for work and did my next morning leak check.

I thought about pipe dope on the threads but wasn't sure as I read some people were pretty against it as it could possible gum up the compression seal. Guess if I'm light with it shouldn't be an issue. Also using the same valve and ferrule back wouldn't be an issue? Guess they aren't like torque to yield bolts or anything where after they've been compressed your supposed to trash em?