With all the discussion related to water pipes - copper vs. PEX - and grounding systems, does anyone know if the installation of a SharkBite connector breaks the continuity of a copper pipe?
I took a quick look at a SharkBite spec sheet and it wasn't mentioned.
I have several Sharkbite "caps" that I bought in case I ever have a situation where I can't finish a job for some reason. I figured I could push the Sharkbite caps onto any open 1/2 inch copper pipes and still turn the water back on at least.
I pushed a piece of 1/2 inch copper pipe into a Sharkbite cap, and there was no electrical continuity between the pipe and the Sharkbite cap until I had pushed the pipe in far enough that it had contacted the end of the metal cap.
So, if you were to use Sharkbite couplings to connect lengths of copper pipe, the quality of the electrical continuity would be determined entirely by the end-to-end contact between pipes. If you had water hammer in those pipes, then you could lose that continuity at any time without knowing it.
Hi, No multi meter handy?
In the instructions on the sharkbites I installed a few years ago it said to jumper the connection with a wire and clamps if electrical continuity was required.
No multi-meter, no pipes, no SharkBites. Just a computer.
Not a good test. What may be a perfectly good connection today, might not be in ten years.
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