Leaking compression join / tee - how to replace?

hellopaul2

hellopaul2

Joined
30 Aug 2012
Messages
90
Reaction score
1
Location
Norfolk
Country
United Kingdom
Hello,
I recently had to adjust a tee in a compression joint; the pipe teeing off the straight pipe was angled too far up, so I slightly loosened the two nuts (by about a quarter turn), re-angled the whole thing, then tightened the nuts again. Then a very slow drip started from both the compression joints, so did the following:
1. Tightened them some more
2. Removed them both, wrapped some PTFE tape around the threads and olives, then did the nuts up again
3. Removed them both, removed the PTFE tape, added some Fernox jointing compound to the threads and the olives, then did the nuts up again
....After steps 1 to 3, the drip remained, but now only from one of the joints.
4. Foolishly bought a new tee, then realised it's impossible to remove the old tee because the two pipes going into each end disappear through the wall and I can't pull them out of the tee.
So, seeing as it's nigh on impossible to get a plumber to come out to do such a trivial job, especially at this time of year when it's getting really cold, does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might be able to fix this? Please?!
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Paul
 
Any chance of a pic ? Sounds like you have overtightened and deformed the pipe / olives. So cutting out the damaged bits and jointing new sections in will be required.are pipes copper ?
 
Try an Olive Puller first with your new olives and fittings.

I set the olive at right height on pipe, remove fitting and wind 10 tuns of ptfe on olive and just in front, belt and braces.
 
The pipework is copper, it's hot water and the tee is the hot feed to my (as yet not installed) kitchen tap. This one tiny drip is holding up my entire kitchen installation - it's maddening!

I'm waiting to hear back from a plumber because every time I ever do some plumbing, I vow to never ever do it again. In fact the only reason I ever do do plumbing myself is because it saves the hours of calling every plumber from AAAAAA Plumbers to Zebedee's Plumbing Services plus the week-long wait until one can visit!

Photo of the tee, complete with drip under the leftmost nut:
IMG_20171120_092109.jpg
 
Excellent Pic.(y) So get a Conex301 BP ( or similar ) Burst pipe repair fitting. Cut and insert it in the pipe on the left of pic. That'll give you room to play. Sorry I can't link to it.
 
Pretty sure you can get that to stop leaking. Clean the whole lot up, PTFE or jointing compound should go on the inside edge of the olive only where it mates with the tee. Don't apply anything to the thread!
 
@Nige F I'm still not sure how I'd be able to piece together a series of compression fittings (the 301BP plus the new tee) without being able to shove the pipes apart. Am I right in thinking that soldered joints would not need as much 'moving apart' to assemble?

@aptsys I just tried that - took apart the ONE (now) leaking joint, cleaned it up, wrapped a lot of PTFE around the olive and the edge of the olive where it pushes into the tee (none on the thread), tightened it all up, turned on the water, and...drip drip drip. Tried tightening it a bit more, but it still drips. I wonder if my water pressure is about 3 tsi? (that's TONS per square inch in case you were wondering). It seems that nothing is going to hold it back. Still waiting to hear from a plumber...
 
If its still dripping after everything you've done, either there is dirt (possibly old sealant / jointing compound) remaining, or the olive has compressed too far onto the pipe and crushed it.

1. If dirt, clean it all up with green abrasive (like the white bit on a washing up sponge), including inside of nut where olive sits, and try again.
2. If olive crushed onto pipe, the only realistic option is to replace pipe and fittings. If the branch (short Tee) is not position sensitive then:
2a. Get repair coupler (e.g.Screwfix item 85529) and new tee piece
2b. Clean up and cut pipe to right of existing tee immediately to right of tee.
2c. Clean up and cut pipe to left of existing tee about 60mm to left of tee.
2c. Loosely fit new tee to right hand pipe.
2d. Cut a short piece of pipe from the 60mm length deep enough to fit into tee and into repair coupler. Clean up well, better still use new pipe.
2e. Push repair coupler onto left hand pipe, slide down to left, then bring back to cover short piece from previous step.
2f. Tighten all compression fittings. Tighten to good finger tight plus half a turn. Shouldn't really need jointing compound as all new / clean, but a smear of Jet Lube V2 wouldn't hurt.
2g. Fit small piece of pipe to branch of tee and re-fit isolation valve (better still fit a new one). Tighten nuts as above.

You'll need a 15mm pipe slice to do it properly. If you use a hacksaw you will need to file burrs off inside and outside of each cut, and make sure cuts are reasonably straight across the pipe.

If you have the equipment and skills, soldered fittings would do a neater and less leak-prone job. Cut out old tee, clean right hand pipe, push on new tee, new piece of pipe from left of tee (allowing for insertion depth) to remains of left hand pipe, stub of pipe into branch, clean, flux and solder. There will be enough give in the pipes to do this if you pop the pipes out of the clip or clips then push back in when finished. You'd need a blow torch, heat mat, solder, flux and fittings. If you use Yorkshire fittings, you would not, in theory, need the solder.
 
The repair coupling will slide onto a cut pipe pulled out from the wall a little- and slide back+ forth along the pipe- in effect lengthening it so the new tee can be cut into the pipe on the RH side of the existing.
 
So - all sorted...by a plumber! His solution: A generous dose of PTFE tape plus EXTREME welly tightening it up, saying that the whole "you'll crush the pipe/knacker the olives/damage the thread etc" thing is rubbish. And it no longer leaks! At least I now know not to worry about these things and when in doubt, use a bigger spanner!
 
hellopaul2 said:
So - all sorted...by a plumber! His solution: A generous dose of PTFE tape plus EXTREME welly tightening it up, saying that the whole "you'll crush the pipe/knacker the olives/damage the thread etc" thing is rubbish. And it no longer leaks! At least I now know not to worry about these things and when in doubt, use a bigger spanner!
Click to expand...

Sounds like you used a quality plumber there :rolleyes:

If you had paid me to do it I would have soldered you a fitting that I knew would never leak.

Your plumber can’t say that.
 
Yeah, the process was "see if we can fix the existing compression fitting, if not, solder a new thing in". I'm assuming it's all OK...I haven't checked it for a while...!
 
EAST61 said:
If you had paid me to do it I would have soldered you a fitting that I knew would never leak.
Click to expand...

really???

hellopaul2 said:
So - all sorted...by a plumber! His solution: A generous dose of PTFE tape plus EXTREME welly tightening it up, saying that the whole "you'll crush the pipe/knacker the olives/damage the thread etc" thing is rubbish. And it no longer leaks! At least I now know not to worry about these things and when in doubt, use a bigger spanner!
Click to expand...
A bodge job with PTFE tape it will leak soon enough. Looking at the photo its a relatively easy job only if you can stop the water flowing. But not all jobs are trivial even if they look like it........that is a plumbing fact.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top