Leaking Valves

Hi, It sprang a leak due to over tightening which is no good? Tony

Get coppeer fittings to attach to the faucet. Learn to solder copper pipe. Get a plumbing book from Home Depot or Lowes. Use a battery-drainer gizmo (rubber sucking thing with long skinny tube) to suck the water away from pipe connections (the biggest problem in soldering pipe), and be sure to keep the flame from hitting anything but the pipe (they sell special pads for this) so you don't set your house on fire. Practice on some copper pipe before you are doing it inside the wall. Then your plumbing world will gain Buddha-nature.

If you broke the ring you will have to replace the whole thing,witch might be better anyway. What you are talking is called a "angle stop" go to any hardware store they will have one. I would guess the copper stub out is 1/2" ( 5/8" OD ) The compression stub out is most likely 3/8". If you can take the old one with you, you will be better off. When installing the new use Pipe dope on the brass compression ring and all the threads. If you have one that the supply line for the fixture is non removable from the angle stop you might to get the same kind, or else use a flex hose the should be able to set you up at the store. If the stub out is out of shape you might have a hard time installing a new one. Clean the pipe with sand cloth.

FWIW, I always use some emery cloth to clean the pipe first and (despite what it might say on the packaging) I use a small amount of pipe joint compound. It's important to have a square end on the pipe and to push the valve on until it seats. It shouldn't be necessary to use excessive force.

But I don't claim any special expertise in this area, so others might tell you differently. Just because it works for me ... YMMV.

A couple suggestions:

First & foremost, be certain the copper stub has a nice clean 90 degree cut at the end. There should be no burrs on the cut end. Ensure the tube is still nice & round. This is easy to check by sliding the new compression on & off , and looking for spots where it binds and /or has a gap between ring & tube. If the tube has a kink or flat spot, the compression ring won't make a waterproof seal.

Be sure the stub is very clean. 00 steel wool works well to remove surface crud.

Slide the nut & ring onto the stub farther than their final seating location. Then slide the >>NEW

Another alternative is to go another way. Solder an adapter on the copper pipe and then use (thread or solder) a quarter turn ball valve. If there is a cosmetic issue, they also make chrome quarter turn ball valves. These valves make life so much easier. MLD

Don't use compression fittings! They will leak. I use the screw in type that have a gasket. In your case you would first have to solder on a copper fitting to screw the new cutoff valve onto.

My experience is limited but I always remove the old ring (especially if the old ring caused a depression, cut at least 1/2" off the pipe, and slip a new nut and ring on which will be slightly behind the old ring depression. When you tighten the nut make sure that the valve does not turn. (I've occasionally had a leak no matter what I did if I let the valve turn slightly.) And, tighten the nut moderately. Leakless valves installed by plumbers often have rings that slip right off with no obvious or felt depression in the copper pipe.

In your case you have damaged the pipe enough that you need to cut off a piece so that the new ring will seat on undamaged pipe. Or sweat on a coupling and a new piece of copper pipe to the old pipe if cutting it off would make it too short.

Good luck. Tighten the nut to no more than 15-20 ft-lbs turn the water on and if it leaks tighten slightly until it stop leaking.

Pipe Dope is not used on compression fittings.

R.R.

I know this suggestion isn't "by the book" but it worked for me the couple of times I ended up with a weeping compression fitting and couldn't easily replace the parts and start over again.

I just backed the nut off and slid it away from the ferrule (ring) and then pulled the pipe out of the fitting a bit.

Then I wrapped a few turns of 1/2" wide teflon pipe tape around the ferrule. The edges of the tape lapped onto the pipe.

When I pushed the nut back and tightened it the teflon squished into the gaps and the joint was "tighter than a bull's ass in fly season", without any overtightening of the nut.

YMMV, but the mechanical principles made sense to me, and as I said above, it sure worked for me.

HTH,

Jeff