EHRS                         Erie Home Repair Service LLC

                         You found the split pipe in your basement, frozen by ice cold air blowing in from outside. You want to fix it but you don’t know how to solder. It used to be if you wanted to replace a section of copper pipe or repair a leak in a joint you would have to know how to solder a pipe. Soldering copper when done correctly is relatively easy and creates a strong waterproof joint. However getting the joint cleaned, fluxed, dry, heated enough but not too much can get a little tricky even if you miss just one step or overheat your pipe. Sometimes we would find a pipe that continue to drip. There were a couple of tricks. Push a piece of wadded up bread dough up the pipe to hold back the water, assemble and solder. The other option was to install a compression fitting that uses a nut that squeezes a compression ring between the pipe and the connector. No solder needed. No pipe dope, or tape needed on the threads either. Not bad! But tough to use in tight spaces.

                              The real boom to the do it yourselfers plumbing has been the introduction of the Sharkbite brand fitting. A Sharkbite type fitting uses a steel retaining clip and an O-ring to make the seal. You can use ½” Sharkbite fittings to connect two pcs.of ½”copper, two pcs.of ½”P.V.C., even two pcs. of ½”P.E.X. You can also connect any one of these types of pipe with the other. No soldering, no wrenching, and no tape or sealers. Just cut the pipe, sand or wipe off burrs and push together completely for a waterproof connection. I believe they are fantastic for repairs or new pipe that can be easily accessed in the future. Sharkbite offers a 25 year warranty against leaking. If you have to bury the connection you may want to consider another option. Since 25 years from now you may not remember to change the O-ring.

Doing it right costs less than doing it over!

Erie Home Repair Service LLC

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