OT_Plumbing Question

Re: OT_Plumbing Question

Barry Irby

I would use the fittings they call Gator Bite or Shark Bite depending on whether you are in Lowes or Home Depot.

They have faucets (hose bib) that work the same way. All you need is a pipe cutter to get a clean cut and A short piece of 1/2" pipe, the faucet, and a coupling. You literally just press them together with your hands. Be careful to be sure they fully seat. I put a little tick mark on the pipe with a Magic Marker so I can see how deep the pipe is in the fitting.

You could also consider switching to a frost free faucet. If you do, be sure to disconnect the hose in cold weather. If you have cold weather.

sharkbite

Jack Guzman from Maine

If I can't sweat a fitting for some reason I use sharkbite fittings.I have a good friend who is a plumber and he says they are ok.

Re: OT_Plumbing Question

walta

Consider fixing the old one.

The same law that broke our toilets put limits on the flow rate for hose bibs and back flow valves that slow the flow and the vacuum breaker make sure your power washer suck in air making it useless.

Walta

Re: OT_Plumbing Question

AZ in Colorado Springs

When my sprinkler pipe blew a hole about six years ago, a friend repaired it using whichever brand home Depot sells (he managed the plumbing department of a home Depot store). This year when I turned the water on to the sprinkler system, that pipe blew apart. (Was an easy fix, but the portion with that fitting had to be replaced. It's now soldered together.)

If you use the press on fittings, be sure they're properly installed.

Re: OT_Plumbing Question

Mark Salomon

I was told by locals at my mountain cabin to not use sharkbite because the movement caused by frost heaving could lead to failure over time. I don't know whether this accurate but might be worth your consideration.

Re: sharkbite

David Weaver

Agree - when I did my kitchen, I tied the old copper in the basement into the kitchen with sharkbite and pex. It's only been three years, but no issues (i'm in my basement often). About a year later, I replaced the laundry sink, which had a very sketchy unsupported length of copper pipe and the sink wasn't screwed to the floor - sharkbite and pex again, no issues.

When reading about the fittings, I noticed oodles of folks talking about potential problems and only one video where someone mentioned actual failure. That individual was a builder and he said that he reuses the shark bite fittings and if they are re-used several times, they will fail. That's a given - once they're on, they're on and shouldn't be re-used anywhere that failure would be problematic.

(the rest of the fittings are just the typical pex elbows and Tees with compressed rings. wonderful to work with and whether I replace the copper or have a plumber replace it (due to increasing pinhole frequency in the old copper), I'll be requesting that it's all done with pex and not with copper (or doing it all in pex).

Re: OT_Plumbing Question

Stuart Johnson

A copper faucet is held in place with either solder or compression nut. The problem with using Sharkbite is the faucet can rotate around the pipe. I found this out when I installed a new outside faucet and needed to anchor it to the brick on the outside.

Thanks for Your Help

Stuart is correct....

Barry Irby

The faucet will rotate if there is a sharkbite any where, straight back.

The faucet needs to be anchored to take the strain off the fittings, no matter what kind they are.

Re: OT_Plumbing Question

TomD

What I did was sweat a ball valve with a hose fitting to a piece of pipe, and then a take off fitting with a pex joint on it. The regular faucets always leak eventually, the ball valve never does. And to boot, we often have specialty hose adapters that mean we just turn the hose on and operate from the special fitting. It also makes it easy to entirely remove the outside fitting for winter. Though while that seemed like a worthwhile thing, I haven't had occasion to do it.

The thread on the back in has the correct aperture for a 1/2" copper pipe. Leave valve open when soldering.

That is an example, the bib I used was a little different.

Re: OT_Plumbing Question

Jason Roehl

So do you have any sort of anti-siphon or backflow prevention on that setup?

Jason

Re: Stuart is correct....

Pete in Holland MI

A faucet can have rotational forces put on it. If you're using Sharkbite fittings, make sure to secure the faucet so it can't turn. Sharkbite fittings don't create good structural joints.

Me? I'd solder it then I KNOW the joint is tight.......forever.

Re: OT_Plumbing Question

TomD

I don't, I have never seen such a thing. All the houses I have owned had just pipes going straight outside. I did buy a Pex siphon attachment, It looked great, and was ready to PEX. But there is 8" inches of concrete, and when it would not fit into the hole that was there, for a straight 1/2" pipe as it turned out, I went with the arrangement mentioned. I suppose one could add some kind of backflow preventer. The Pex siphon unit had a regular tap on it, not the ball arrangement I prefer, but probably a ball is available now.

Would a check valve solve my problem? We don't run sprinklers so all I need is enough water to fill some buckets etc...

The product I bought was like this one, though the barrel was a uniform size.