Repeat broken pipe

Two winters ago, we had a pipe burst in the exterior wall of our finished basement. The pipe leads to the outdoor faucet, and we had not shut off the water to this line before a very cold week in March (in Connecticut). We hired a plumber from a company that we found with good reviews online. They found that there was a joint in the pipe (probably a repair from a previous freezing incident) that came apart . They replaced a plastic fitting with a copper one. Since that winter, we have shut off the water to our outdoor faucets in the fall, and drained the lines by leaving the outdoor faucets open. This spring, when we turned the water back on to the basement faucet, we noticed that there was very little water pressure flowing out of the open faucet. Then, water started flowing through the light switch panel in the wall at the same location where we had the previous damage. We cut through the drywall to find that this copper repair had failed. When we contacted the plumber, he said that 'cold air' must have made the joint pull apart. Is this a reasonable explanation? How can we avoid this problem again?

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Posted 3 years ago by Anonymous in Plumbing

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