This compression fitting on my water supply line ruptured yesterday, flooding my first floor. I had to turn off water at the meter and we're doing the bucket thing until the landlord does something about it or until I do it myself. I've never seen PVC compression fittings on indoor plumbing before, but I'm also not a professional. All other PVC joints that I can see are cemented, so why is this one compression? What would you do to fix it? It joins 1" to 3/4".
- one soggy GRM'er
Sorry about the problem, but yes, that's not uncommon, especially for a transition between size and material like that.
Good luck! I hope it gets repaired soon.
Curious if that's even up to code.
That is a- very common and b- depending on local law, maybe not up to code.
You're looking at two different styles of PVC. The white is schedule 40, pretty common plumbing. The black is.....??? Black (around me at least) is usually useful for irrigation, and is usually abs. I've never personally seen black pvc and am not sure it exists. Could have been used in your area for possible freeze prevention, it's primary use is underground plumbing due to shock resistance. That compression fitting is there to join the two together, probably from a previous repair. They should have the same o/d and threading, in theory. You could easily repair it yourself if you were so inclined.
If I were to fix it, I would cut it above and below the breaks. Get one 1" coupler (I prefer glue/glue) and one 3/4-1" transition coupler. Get a short length of schedule 40 1". Get a small bottle of blue PVC cement (works wet) and purple primer- most places sell it as a combo kit.
Clean, prime, and glue the fittings to either end of the cut pipe. You should have enough flex in the black pipe to wedge the short length of schedule 40 in between the couplings and glue into place. Let it dry and send it.
I would recommend shark bites because that removes the glue, but I can't remember if they work with abs and I don't work at a hardware store anymore so I can't go open one and check. If someone can confirm, use shark bites and skip the glue.
New developments. The black pipe is something called SDR-9 PE which I assume is polyethylene. I can't find a similar gasketed compression fitting in 1" anywhere, so I'm wondering will a shark-bite or PEX fitting work on this pipe? Brief internet search says yes, sharkbite fittings will work for any SDR-9 HDPE. Landlords' handyman is on it but I'd like a backup plan because we want to shower.
I'd send it with a shark bite. Just make sure the cuts are clean and flat, off angle cuts will not seal properly. Remainder of the previous instructions apply. So one 1"-1" shark bite, and one 1"-3/4". Pipe in the middle, go.
We found a 1" to 3/4" reducer Shark bite and sent it. Seems to be holding fine!
Shark bites are magical creatures.
The black pipe is for underground use. The times I've seen it used, the plumbers had a fitting that was barbed on one end, and CPVC on the other. They heat up the black pipe and push the fitting in and use a hose clamp. Like this Lowes
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