Repair pipe where saddle valve used to be

[Sam]

replying to Percival P. Cassidy, Sam wrote: Use Flex Tape

[trader_4]

Flex tape on copper water lines? Not in my house.

[DerbyDad03]

It took you 8.5 years to come up with that stupid suggestion?

Please step back from the keyboard.

[gfretwell]

I agree. The closest I would come to a patch would be to tap the hole, run in a very short brass screw and solder it in. If I could get to it easily I would cut it right at the hole and put a sweat coupling in or a compression coupler if you can't get a torch in there.

[DerbyDad03]

I go with a SharkBite over a compression fitting, but that's just me.

[gfretwell]

Everyone seems to be in love with Sharkbites but I think I trust a compression ring over an O ring.

[DerbyDad03]

In my case it's not "love", it's experience and convenience. I've had both types of fittings in my house for many years. I have Sharkbites that are at street pressure, connecting copper to PEX. 10 years, maybe a bit more. Never a problem.

Without a doubt they are easier to install in a cramped location than both sweated and compression fittings. I've got nothing against compression fittings, but I also have complete trust in SharkBite fittings.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I had a compression fitting that would leak about once a year. It is in a PITA spot to get to, of course. Put in a Sharkbite and no problems so far for 4 years.

Possible i just had the one in a million bad compression fittings but I'm not going to try another.

[DerbyDad03]

The only compression fittings I have are from when I first bought the house and hadn't tried sweating copper yet. Most of the sinks didn't have individual shut-offs so I installed compression shut-offs. (SharkBites weren't available yet.) I replaced most of the compression shut-offs with sweated shut-offs during renovations, but a few still remain.

For years I had street pressure for the front hose bib but reduced house pressure in the back yard. The street pressure pipe was in a location where it would have been tough to sweat a T into. In addition, running copper from the front of the house to the rear - over the duct work - would have been a real PITA. Lots of short pieces, sweating (or compression) in the joist bays, etc.

Then I heard about SharkBites. One T at the front of the house, a single length of PEX over the duct work, and a SharkBite elbow to transition back to copper at the back of the house. That was the end of wimpy watering for SWMBO's multiple gardens.

As I said, >10 years at street pressure with no problems.