Sharkbite! (Plumbing)

davenlei

davenlei

New member
So I have a pinhole leak in a pipe in my garage ceiling.  I cut away the drywall and have located the pipe and leak.  I was considering the following three options:

1) Get a plumber.  Since I exposed the pipe and located the issue, repair will be about $130 sweating (soldering) a new section of pipe in place.
2) Getting a torch, flux, solder, steel wool and pipe joint (~$50) and sweating the section in place by myself. (I have a lot of PCB soldering experience and am considered an experienced handyman with the house/cars but have not sweated plumbing before).
3) Using a shark bite (gator bite, etc.) (~$8) to replace the pinhole leak pipe section without sweating the pipes.

I plan on living here a long time so I am leaning to solution #1 due to it not being too expensive and leaving it to someone who has sweated thousands of pipes in the past.

Anyone with experience doing #2 or #3 in the past?
 
Try contacting Peter @ P-ECO Plumbing:: - 949-600-0183.  I used him for a pipe leak and a he went above and beyond on fixing the problem.  He ended up doing some re piping for me at no extra cost.
 
I have done #2 (repiped 1 house, upgraded a 2nd) and #3 on my last job.  The sharkbites are handy, but don't save enough time to make them worth it IMO.  Maybe for a small splice like you're doing, but you still need to prep, measure, cut, etc.  And the surface condition of the pipe is more important for the sharkbites...worry about nicks and gouges.  I know they're certified, but I don't trust them completely.  My last repair was in a tall crawlspace and easily accessible, so if they leak, I can get to them.  Again, not worth it, and I won't use them again.  When you get copper fittings set in place and fitted together, it doesn't take much time to sweat them...a minute or so per fitting, even less if they're close together.  If  you spend the $50 on #2 you'll always have the stuff handy for future issues.

Make sure there is enough flexibility in the line that you can splice a pipe in there.  A sharkbite fitting will need a fair amount more flexibility than copper.

Is there any kind of saddle clamp repair you can just cinch down around the outside of the pipe?
 
daedalus said:
I have done #2 (repiped 1 house, upgraded a 2nd) and #3 on my last job.  The sharkbites are handy, but don't save enough time to make them worth it IMO.  Maybe for a small splice like you're doing, but you still need to prep, measure, cut, etc.  And the surface condition of the pipe is more important for the sharkbites...worry about nicks and gouges.  I know they're certified, but I don't trust them completely.  My last repair was in a tall crawlspace and easily accessible, so if they leak, I can get to them.  Again, not worth it, and I won't use them again.  When you get copper fittings set in place and fitted together, it doesn't take much time to sweat them...a minute or so per fitting, even less if they're close together.  If  you spend the $50 on #2 you'll always have the stuff handy for future issues.

Make sure there is enough flexibility in the line that you can splice a pipe in there.  A sharkbite fitting will need a fair amount more flexibility than copper.

Is there any kind of saddle clamp repair you can just cinch down around the outside of the pipe?
Click to expand...

I could do the clamp but I would consider that a very short term patch until a permanent solution is implemented.
 
Coleman said:
Do you mind sharing the price?  For future reference
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$130 - $95 for the service call and $35 for the parts.  I live down in South County close to Dana Point/Monarch Beach.

I called another plumber just to price compare and they wanted $190
 
So that's just for the leak fix, or did he actually patch the drywall too in that 15 minutes?  And did he solder or use a sharkbite?
 
daedalus said:
So that's just for the leak fix, or did he actually patch the drywall too in that 15 minutes?  And did he solder or use a sharkbite?
Click to expand...

That is just for the leak fix.  I have a really good drywall guy so I did not want the drywall repaired by him.  He actually used a third option.  It was not soldering and not a sharkbite.  It is similar to a sharkbite but is permanent and uses a compression tool to mold the piece to the pipe.  It is guaranteed for 50 years.
 
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