Pipe Problem

[PA_MIKE]

I had a copper pipe develop a leak. It was in the center of the pipe. It almost appears corroded. Does anyone have any ideas what may have caused this?

[caberjim]

hard water, maybe. Pop a patch on it for now, replace when you get a chance.

[PA_MIKE]

Originally Posted by caberjim

hard water, maybe. Pop a patch on it for now, replace when you get a chance.

Good place to squeeze in a shut off valve. I have never seen a pipe spring a pin hole in it like this before. Kind of worries me

[Bearfootfarm]

Originally Posted by PA_MIKE

Good place to squeeze in a shut off valve. I have never seen a pipe spring a pin hole in it like this before. Kind of worries me

Has it ever frozen? If so it could have been weakened.

[OkieDavid]

Our water gradually corrodes through copper pipe. I'm talking about the thicker "stick" copper not the thin rolled copper. I've just about switched all mine out to PVC but the neighbors all say copper will last about 10 years. Don't know which chemical is present but seems like I recall one of them saying it is the manganese content.

[Micahn]

I would say you may have a case of electrolysis.
Here is what happens a lot of times. When a home is built the electric was put in and ground rod was installed to ground the system. At the same time a lot of people will also ground the plumbing system to the same rod or just tie it into the rest of the system. The problem is that a lot of times the ground rod does not work like it should. Instead of all of the power leaving threw the ground rod some of it will go threw the plumbing system and find ground along it. Over time that will eat a hole into the line if it is made of copper or some sort of other metallic type pipe.
I have had to tunnel under many homes to replace the copper piping for this very reason many times. Some times you will just find one small hole like you found other times you might have to replace all of the piping because of it.
If you have real sandy soil would be the worst as every time the pipe touches a grain a sand a hole will start eating away.

Anyway that is one way a hole can just pop up in the middle of a pipe and leave people scratching their heads how it happened.

[Micahn]

Originally Posted by OkieDavid

Our water gradually corrodes through copper pipe. I'm talking about the thicker "stick" copper not the thin rolled copper. I've just about switched all mine out to PVC but the neighbors all say copper will last about 10 years. Don't know which chemical is present but seems like I recall one of them saying it is the manganese content.

So you know the stick copper or hard as a plumber would call it chances are is much thinner then the soft or rolled copper. Most people use M hard copper while soft copper most times in L copper. Sure you can get L hard copper but as a plumber for most of my life I never seen M soft copper as it would just be to weak. You could crush it in your hand it would be so weak.

[Jim S.]

Originally Posted by Micahn

I would say you may have a case of electrolysis.

I had that with a house in Williamsburg, Va. Built in the '50s before they knew about it. They plumbed the whole house with copper, then connected it to a galvanized supply line. That sets up an electrolysis all its own, with no current needed. Just the dissimilar metals in contact, and the constant presence of water.

This corroded both my copper pipe and the galvanized in the ground.

The easy fix for the problem was to install a length of plastic pipe between the two metals.

[MELOC]

i had that happen here several years back. i have lots of iron in my water. i also had the ground hooked to the plumbing...so take your pick of causes, lol. the bad part was that once i fixed one spot, another would pop up. expect to see more leaks in time. perhaps it is a good time to plan a plumbing upgrade.

[suitcase_sally]

Softened water will eventually eat the copper also.

[Michael W. Smith]

Originally Posted by MELOC

i had that happen here several years back. i have lots of iron in my water. i also had the ground hooked to the plumbing...so take your pick of causes, lol. the bad part was that once i fixed one spot, another would pop up. expect to see more leaks in time. perhaps it is a good time to plan a plumbing upgrade.

Yeah, you got that right!!!!! I had problems with pin hole sized leaks to the copper pipe supplying our hot water tank (it comes in right from the well there). No sooner would the hole be fixed, and another would start elsewhere. Then a leak developed in the wall going up to the bathroom - ("What is that hissing sound in the wall?!?) So we replaced everything with plastic pipe and haven't had a problem since.

I suggest you plan a plumbing project within the next year where all copper pipe is replaced!

[tiogacounty]

Originally Posted by Micahn

So you know the stick copper or hard as a plumber would call it chances are is much thinner then the soft or rolled copper. Most people use M hard copper while soft copper most times in L copper. Sure you can get L hard copper but as a plumber for most of my life I never seen M soft copper as it would just be to weak. You could crush it in your hand it would be so weak.

Things might be a bit different in other parts of the world, but here in the Northeast, I have rarely seen any domestic water run in M grade. It is used in residential heating, and occasionally by a weekend warrior who didn't know, or care, but I never saw a pro use anything but L for hot and cold water. I live on a street where copper pipes seem to last indefinitely in our immediate area. If you head two blocks away, the well water will chew pin holes in type L within a decade.

[Micahn]

Originally Posted by tiogacounty

Things might be a bit different in other parts of the world, but here in the Northeast, I have rarely seen any domestic water run in M grade. It is used in residential heating, and occasionally by a weekend warrior who didn't know, or care, but I never saw a pro use anything but L for hot and cold water. I live on a street where copper pipes seem to last indefinitely in our immediate area. If you head two blocks away, the well water will chew pin holes in type L within a decade.

Well I guess you could call me a pro :-) as I done it for so long.
Around here I would say 90% of the homes have L soft under ground and M hard above ground. The other 10% would be CPVC or some other plastic type pipe. Now when ever I worked on schools or some other big things like that, they a lot of time they wanted all type L copper used. In my own home I did use all type L as well :-)

[moopups]

The quickest temporary cure is an internal flaring compression fitting, the type with the 2 bezel rings. Note the word 'temporary.

[PA_MIKE]

Wow... this scares me.... I plan on tearing into it this weekend