after a rather more eventful weekend than i was hoping for, i'm hoping somebody can explain this....
i finished plumbing in everything in my new bathroom a couple of weeks ago. no real problems and all went quite well. so, i was a bit surprised to be woken at 1am on saturday to the sound of water running and a hysterical girlfriend. it appears that one of the compression joints has spontaneously exploded, allowing mains pressure water to go everywhere. fortunately no real damage done, just a lot of mopping up to do downstairs.
the bit i don't understand is why this joint went so suddenly. here's the facts :
- the pipe had just slipped straight out leaving the olive in the service valve that the pipe had escaped from.
- the joint hasn't leaked at all in the last 2 weeks.
- the pipe was running from a service valve horizontally about 4" across then going to a flexi-hose which connects vertically to the adapters which go up to the mixer tap.
- the pipe wasn't supported by pipe clips, although it's a short run and hardly moves at all anyway.
- i'd put a couple of wraps of PTFE tape over the olive as i'd been advised that this can help stop small leaks (was this my downfall?)
- all the other compression joints i've made are absolutely fine and have been for 2 weeks.
i'd quite like to understand why this joint has failed so spectacularly before i go trying to fix it.
thanks dan