When most people think of water leaks, they think of cracked or a pipe burst. Leaks like this are known as pinhole leaks. They are common in copper pipes but can also occur in steel, galvanized, and non-metallic pipes like PEX. A copper pipe pinhole leak comes from various sources. In recent years, due to changes in water chemistry, it is more common to have pinhole leaks occur from the inside of the pipe.
Pinhole leaks can happen because the copper pipe breaks down. This may have resulted from poor installation, age, soil chemistry, or water treatment. Water treatment involves changes in the water chemistry, which can speed up the breakdown process. Copper pipes thought to last anywhere from 20 to 50 years, have shown to fail in as little as a few years.
Pinhole leaks start small, typically with an occasional drip of water. The problem gets worse when the pinhole leak is left alone, months or even years of a slow pinhole leak can cause significant damage to your property. These wet areas can cause wooden supports to weaken or rot and encourage mold and mildew growth.
If you find a copper pipe leak in your water lines or elsewhere within the plumbing system, it is possible to temporarily patch the pipes or to use an epoxy putty for a quick repair. However, patching the pipes only works in instances where the repair spot on the pipe is limited in size and location and the rest of the plumbing is in good shape.
A traditional repipe can be time consuming, expensive and usually involves cutting into walls, ceilings, and floors and days without water. The patented three-step solution, the ePIPE solution, uses trenchless methods to repair and restore your pipes without extensive digging, costly landscaping repairs and restoration inside your home with minimal cutting into walls, floors, and ceilings. He was very helpful until we had to make a special encasement for some copper pipes.
He is very savvy and is about 10 — 15 years older than me and a Civil Engineer. We were using my other brothers nail gun and well……my brother fired a nail right into the pipes not thinking about them.
Immediate leak. We had to shut off the water to the whole house. So we when out and got on of those sleeves that you sweat onto the piece you are replacing. Getting all the water out to get the pipes hot enough to get the joint to take the solder was proving difficult. We had to get more water out of the lines to get them hot enough to sweat on.
It put us a day or two behind. I may have some pictures of that project on some of the 1st Generation Digital Cameras. Thank God for Sharkbite these days, but you never know what you will hit. I have a lot of work to do on my house, one never knows!!! I currently have a very, very minor leak on my new hot water tank supply line hot side. So minor that I only have some of the new stretch tape over it and a small bucket under it and it only does about a tenth of a bucket a month: I keep putting it off.
I like your site and congrats on the happy day! PS Also, just recently learned of a copper pipe, no solder approach for some applications—called a shark bite. The HD guy showed me and I was impressed. This one important. Wondering if you have stopped sending as often as I have not received in a very long time? Happiest Anniversary to you and your wife. Happy Memorial Day, Char PS: Queston: I am needing to redo old old pipes under this old house and have been trying to learn best : copper or plastic?
Opinion please? It worked well for what I was doing and it sounds like this is an even better product. I hope to never have to deal with a problem like this, but who am I kidding? Of course I will at some point. Keep up the posts Jeff.
I look forward to learning something new each Friday! It definitely would buy some time. Thanks so much for all of your tutorials, podcasts, and FB community!
And your site is the first place I go when I have questions about how to do something home related! This is like you said something everyone should in their tool box.
Thanks for alerting us to this product, even though we all hope we never will need it. Great insurance for sure. Unfortunately, this happened to me About two years ago. However, the copper pipe was leaking in a 90 degree angle in the piping. This was one of the reasons I became a DIYer. So something good came out of it I guess… Thanks for all the great tips! WOW, Jeff. Another great tip for a 69 year old widowed homeowner. I own an aerial photography company.
I could use the putty to help secure camera mounts on my drones better than they are now! Hi again—went to Home Depot yesterday. I asked 3 employees in the plumbing area and none of them had heard of it. Two of them helped me look for it too. I did buy a similar item but not by that maker or name Wow, wish I had this FastFix last month!
Thanks for posting this! I woke up to find that three of my pipes have leaks in them. How about that? Using an epoxy putty seems like it would save a lot of time and money to fix my pipes. PS i am not a plumber. I firmly believe in them for any homeowner. At the very least they could be used in an emergency then the pipe could be soldered back together the next day. We had to do these steps twice cause it leaked still the first time and leaking still fater second. Hi i saw your video on youtube.
Thanks Jagjit. Well it is the weekend and I have a pinhole leak in a t-joint of my copper pipe. Is this stuff permanent? Well, thank you for this very informative topic. I was just looking on the web. Pipe repair clamps are fundamentally a temporary solution. They may even introduce chemical and metal alterations to your water, which can further wear away at the pipe.
Likewise, couplings and replacement pipe negatively interact with the copper in your pipes. This can create the tension that wears away at oxide coating referred to above. By applying either of these methods to your pinhole leak, you might create a big problem by trying to solve a little one! If the replacement job proves to require more significant replacement, you should call a professional. With a little investment and diligence, you can prevent the problems that create a pinhole leak in copper pipe listed above.
The chemical interactions that wear away at copper pipes typically occur because of high ph value in your water. Investing in a water softener can help prevent the kind of ph values that will harm your copper pipes. A water softener will also remove many of the contaminants that could scrape up your copper pipes over time.
If your water pressure seems abnormally high, you may have to take other measures. Eventually, the leak becomes more obvious and more urgent.
Residential copper pipes typically last from years depending on the type. Certain types of copper piping are more susceptible to corrosion than others. A professional plumber can help determine if your home is equipped with a thinner variety that will degrade faster. As copper ages, the inner lining of the pipe weakens, making them more prone to pinhole leaks.
The most cost-effective option may be to re-plumb your home. First, consider reducing the water velocity flowing through your copper pipes. This will prevent minerals in the water from traveling too fast, lessening the risk of corrosion. Secondly, have a plumbing expert inspect the size of your pipes.
If too small, they can increase the friction of the water rubbing against the lining of the pipe. Banging noises could be signs your pipes are too small. You can minimize velocity by using larger-diameter pipes.
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