bad solder joint after 10 months?

Al Corelli

It must be Skippy with nuts.

The nuts are the guys that install it on the threads!! :)

Dave_61

bad solder joint after 10 months?

We had some piping work done on our hot water system about 10 months ago, and everything has been great.
Last night, I happened to walk down the basement to put something away and found a large puddle of water. It was coming out of the solder joint at a 2" copper tee. Isn't it odd to have a solder joint fail after almost a year? We are using a water/glycol mixture of 30% with our system. Thanks.
Dave

Brad White_164

Leaking Joints

Could be as simple as a pinhole leak, a fistula or pathway in the joint that was just plugged up enough to hold. A good finish to last year's heating season, a summer off and a new season started, all of that thermal expansion and contraction may have just loosened up whatever was holding that joint closed.

An erosion of sorts could also have been caused by too much flux, not wiping the joint nor cleaning the system with TSP before putting it into service. To do so would neutralize the acids (boric acid usually) that remain after using most solders. Tattle-tale green corrosion on certain joints is a sign.

Glycol has a low surface tension and while more viscous than water is more slippery and will find the system's faults as far as leaks are concerned.

ScottMP

Could be anything

The main thing is whether the installer comes back and covers it at no charge. That tells whether you had a pro or not.

Oh Wait ... did you do the install ???



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Ragu_5

Oh Brad: You Kill Me!!!!!!

Could I have your brain when/if you are done with it?

Surface tension is one of my favorite subject!!!

As always, you are right on the money. Milne is some smart, also! Meet you both in person, soon. Jack

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David Sutton_6

1 1/2 yrs

After i put a system in i had gone back to do some other work and found i DID NOT sweat a 1 1/4 cap on a header, and it still was not leaking ( but would it be a leak if not sweated??) and fixed it. did i tell the HO i forgot it ;-)

hmmmm the world may never know........


David

Chris_82

Forget me nots

Being a past union guy, and the project super on one of the last 80 story highrises, we move at a pretty good clip, and with different shifts sometimes a joint gets left behind, most of the time the high pressure test pushes out the fittings and we have a big surprize. What amazes me is that some joints last forever, unsoldered, this is not uncommon. Speaking of materials. I was involved in a research project for Boston Gas where we installed a number of gas meters to each appliance in select homes. I usually don't name names but in Concord Ma there is a local inspector / local contractor, who is very reputable and without question above reproach...that one day put toghther all of the gas pipe with peanut butter. He ran out of recto whatever and rather than stop his crew...kept going and marked the joints loosly with the butter so that later he would simply unscreew everything and redo the pipe. He forgot a few. Years later I show up and for the life of me I can't figure out which brand of thread sealant this was. We were unable to get a 15 pound test, but it would hold the normal 5 for 15 min. It smelled like peanut butter, it looked like peanut butter but it wasent untill I called the local plumbing inspector to sign on the line that with a rather large red face he admitted it was skippy!

Constantin

Happened to me too...

... slip joint not put in right, soldered 95% to one side of the butt joint. 10 months later, the 2mm that held the other pipe started to let go. We caught it early, thankfully.

This is the stuff that GC nightmares are made of.

EBEBRATT-Ed

What I need to know is what kind of Skippy???

Smooth or with nuts?????????


ED

hr

Is there room for expansion?

I have seen leaks develop, down the road, when they were fit to tightly and had no expansion room.

hot rod

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Edward A. (Ed) Carey_3

Expansion??

Hot Rod I was thinking the same thing.

If the fitting is not a point of stress from expansion, it was just probably a bad joint. However, if the expansion of the pipes has flexed the fitting, the joint could have failed due to that expansion.

It will be important for the HO to be sure which. If it is expansion, a new fitting will probably fail over time for the same reason.

Ed Carey

mikea23

> We had some piping work done on our hot water

> system about 10 months ago, and everything has

> been great. Last night, I happened to walk down

> the basement to put something away and found a

> large puddle of water. It was coming out of the

> solder joint at a 2" copper tee. Isn't it odd to

> have a solder joint fail after almost a year? We

> are using a water/glycol mixture of 30% with our

> system. Thanks. Dave



we got a call a year or so ago about a leak in the kitchen Our company installed the plumbing 2 years prior sent a tech he cut a hole in sheetrock and believe it or not he found a coupling on the domestic water line that was not sodered 2 years leak free I will try and find the pic and post it
Mike

Chris_82

The nutty thing was, I just had to taste it to be shure!

Dan_53

How would we make room for expansion

at a tee joint?

MPF

Ewww,,,



I remember one once, IBM plant in Boca, I had built this elaborate Christmas tree for a Liebert unit and missed one joint. We were supposed to air test the system first but we were behind so the foreman just put the water to it. Suddenly the armorflex starts to balloon out in one spot and then KABOOSH!! There went our jobs...

Now I can look back at it and laugh, sort of.