Okay plumbing this time

Al Smith

Mac Daddy
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
14,307
Location
Northern Ohio
You have a copper water line leaking but the damned thing is full of water .Pack it full of bread to block it off .Take the screens off the faucets and open the valve once you get it done .You can't solder a line full of water or steam .The bread will blow right out like yesterdays news .
 
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  • #6
You can evacuate the water easy enough .Close the main shut off .Find a length of old garden hose,hose clamp and an air chuck and make a little jumper to fit on something like an outside faucet with a screw connector .Just open up a faucet or several and blow it out with compressed air .You'll never get it all out though .Then comes the bread .
The leak usually is around a fitting that more than likely was never soldered properly in the first place but somehow remained working for decades until all the sudden it didn't hold any more .With the advent of Pex and glued plastic it's in an older house you even find copper plumbing these days .
 
The pex is money, it can even freeze and not crack, you can pull it like romax, it's good for house piping water. I still do copper for anything exposed (under sinks, etc.), it looks wayyyyyyyy better and I'm picky usually. When soldering, care in cleaning and fluxing will solve most problems, as you are heating up, continuously check if the solder will flow so you don't overheat and burn out the flux, if it's smoking like crazy you used too much heat. Heat the backside, and let the solder flow to it because molten metal follows heat. That way you can assure you're good to go on difficult joints (works on 1" and down, bigger you need to go around it more). Always wipe your joints while they are still hot with a dry rag, this makes a much cleaner job and will assure the solder is all the easy around the joint. I personally heat a bit, wipe off excess flux, heat again with solder testing continuously until it takes, solder the joint, then wipe again. If it's going to be really visible i will then wipe flux on when it's still hot and then polish all discoloration away with the rag. That's how it's done:D

And yes the bread trick works great for all sorts of stuff, even steam and condensate lines that will be flowing water while you need to weld. When the system is turned back on the bread just vanishes lol
 
Any reports of rodents being attracted to pex for the water in it?

In vineyards around here coyotes will just bite the black drip line feeder pipe anytime they want water.
 
We finally come to an old school tip from Al that I actually did know and have employed several times! Whoo hoo!!!
 
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Any reports of rodents being attracted to pex for the water in it?

In vineyards around here coyotes will just bite the black drip line feeder pipe anytime they want water.

Freakin rodents just chew to be chewing .The only difference between a mouse and a groundhog is their size .It's a never ending battle

This bread method you speak of sounds neat. Is there a youtube vid out there?
Yep------
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygGkJcpKZzs
 
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