Pin hole in copper pipe.

IME if you have one pin hole there will probably more you will be better replacing the length rather than repairing just the pin hole area.

Richard

Maybe even a bad batch?, is something else that crossed my mind. Ah well, next time I'm in the mood to get those floorboards up :-)

Due to supply problems there was some very dodgy pipe imported into the UK around 1980 that is prone to pin-holing.

Well, that's cheered me up no end :-) TBH, I'm slowly discovering that, as much fun as they were, the 80's may have been something of a nadir in terms of housebuilding practices.

I've seen this on capillary fittings, but not pipe itself. Was told it was down to an impurity.

When this house was built in the 1960s copper pipe was being imported from S America. The result was that during the 1990s I had to replace the whole of the central heating system; every single bit of pipe. There were pin holes appearing all the time. Strangely the ordinary water pipes were unaffected.

Bill

I'm not aware that the water does this. Our house is older than that. The main places where I've had pin holes are those grotty bendable convoluted pipes often used for the final couple of feet to the tap when sink tops are changed to a different tap spacing. Brian

Yes but how far do you go with that logic? Brian

Go on so what on earth can be wrong with copper pipe to make it prone to this. Surely if its very thin walled or has somehow been damaged are the only issues. As crud builds up in a pipe one might suppose it would be less prone. Brian

Same thing happened at my parents house and they have hard water.

Replaced about six inch of pipe and it was OK for a few years. Don't know what happened after that as the house was sold.

About that time there was a technical problem at Yorkshire copper to do with the lubricant used while drawing the pipe. There's probably going to be more incipient pinholes.

Ahhhh! When I was an apprentice in maybe 1969 a new 1/2 inch copper pipe (Yorkshire) squirted out water on a new central heating installation. The plumber who trained me said it was a sand hole in the pipe - something to do with the way the pipe was rolled.

Had this problem some time back (more than 20 years IIRC).

Not helped by the fact that the pipe in question was plastered into the walls.

It is a known problem with sub-standard pipes and insurance paid for the replacement of the dodgy pipe. Allegedly a copper shortage in the 1970s lead to a lot of copper pipes having very thin walls.

YMMV.

Cheers

Dave R

alan_m was thinking very hard :

My home was completely re-plumbed and central heating added, around that time. I have had no issues at all.

I would be inclined to cut a small patch of pipe, to slip over the top and tin it in place over the hole. It could well just be an isolated weak spot or wear spot.

I had a pinhole in my hot pipe, took about three weeks to find it. The pipe was touching a piece of rubble which had worn the hole over the years. The water was draining outside and the pipe was inside the wall.

I had the same thing happen about 30 years after the copper plumbing was done in a new house and haven't had any more since, now 45 years since the house was built. Also a soft water area. That era was notorious for rare pinholes in copper pipes apparently.

Presumably due to the inhibitor used in the central heating system.

I re-plumbed a house in 1970. Copper was hard to find so I used stainless steel and compression fittings.

Back in the 90s, I had a BT technician tell me that a 1970s copper shortage led to aluminium wires which were all deteriorating (hence his presence :)