Plumbing? Crimped Copper

[Bear55]

So the water pressure in my home recently took a nose dive. The pressure is low house wide, hot and cold have the same low pressure. I have great pressure at the tank and to an exterior faucet so that leads me to one of two shut off valves just before the hot water tank are plugged or possibly a joint in the same area.

So I was looking at all the copper joints in the area and they are not soldered, they appear to be crimped similar to the way the Pex is crimped but are 100% copper. How would I go about replacing some of these joints?

[nobody05]

sounds like pro-press fittings to me, and they are not your source of the pressure loss look somewhere else!! do you have rusty water that could be building up throughout your whole house?

[Bear55]

I don't think we have rusty water, the house was built in 2007/2008, is that kind of build up house wide even possible in that time frame?

Propress fittings looks to be what I have between the pressure tank and the water heater, everything else in the house is Pex.

[nobody05]

any in-line water sediment filter's that could be plugging? Just hard to belive that in 3 years ball valves would be restricting flow also..

[nobody05]

Not only that if it were you valves for you water heater it would only be the hot water with the reducded pressure

[Bear55]

No filters. Its both hot and cold equally and I have great pressure at the tank and at an outdoor faucet right next to the tank. The only thing I can think of is there is something in the line that is blocking the flow.

Looks like the only way I'm going to find out is to get dirty and start tearing things apart.

[bgmny]

If you have good pressure right after the tank but don't after the tee for the outside water, then I would be looking for some restriction right after the tee. The fact that your hot and cold water are equally low on pressure would mean a problem in the cold line after your outside tee but before the tee that splits and goes to your water heater and the rest of your house. The pro press fittings require a special tool that is very expensive so remember that you will have to solder it back together or find a pro press tool to use. Are you sure that you don't have those copper fittings that look like pro press but actually have solder built into them that you just heat up? Probly wouldn't see any solder on the outside like a typical sweat joint.

[spearchucker]

Do you have a water softner? If so it could be getting plugged up.

[Surface Tension]

Water softener could be a likely suspect.

Can't imagine a blockage at one of the fittings

Did you happen to shut the water off recently?

Could be scale or rust got knocked loose and is clogging the aerators or cartridge. Those will clog long before a T.

I think that is where I would start.

[Bear55]

No water softener. I am pretty sure it has propress fittings, I can see crimp marks on all the copper fittings, and no kidding that propress tool is expensive. They start at $1500, heck I can't even find anywhere to rent one so I will just have to go with solder.

We have enough pressure to survive but not much, I wont' have time to look at this until next week or weekend but I am going to dive in and I will report back what I find.

[Redlantern]

Bear, be careful to not sweat the pipes too close to a propress fitting. It has an o ring in it that can get damaged if too much heat gets near it. If you have to, wet towels wrapped around the propress fitting will help or pick up some stuff called cool gel. Great stuff. Spray it on the propress fittings. Not sure how it works but it keeps the area sprayed cool. Also works great to spray it on wires or wood near the work area for a little damage control. The stuff will evaporate and not leave any noticeable residue.

[Bear55]

Thanks for the tip Red.

[MNice]

Bear, keep us posted, I find you problem very unusual and would like to know the cause.

Good luck

[3pronghook]

Ive used sharkbite fittings for repair work. you can get them at menards. easy to use and no special tools required.

[Bob P]

I would ck the the water pressure reducing valve, your outside hose bib may be connected before the prv giving you good pressure outside.

[Surface Tension]

Bob P welcome to HSO and the excellent advice.

Having been on a well for over 20 years I did not think of the possibility of municipal water supplies.

[Redlantern]

If you can avoid the shark bite fittings, I would. They meet code but if you take one apart, you'll see that they aren't much more than chinese finger cuffs. I'd actually prefer a compression joint over that.

[Bear55]

Thanks again for the tips guys, I am going to work on the problem this weekend. I will report back.

[Bear55]

Well see if you guys can figure this one out. I cut the pipe open where I thought there might be some kind of blockage near a valve and two other fittings. I get the water drained and the flash light out and everything looks normal, so now I am really shaking my head. So I solder up the pipe and figure I might have to bite the bullet and call in a professional and magically after I get everything patched up and the water running again the pressure is back to normal. Any ideas? I'm happy its working but it would be nice to know what is going on.

[Archerysniper]

There could still be something that is in the water line that has moved for now and not causing problems at this time.

We had this happen on a hotel and it took forever to find the problem. You would turn the water on to the sink in the bathroom and have great pressure for a 1/2 second then it would go down to nothing, if you just bearly opened it the flow and pressure would stay the same. It turned out someone had put a AA battery in the 1/2" waterline when you would turn the water on the pressure and water flow would push it up and block the 90 off where it turned to come out the wall as soon as you would shut it off it would go back down.

I have even seen the metal ends to the fitting brushes come off in a fitting and act like a check valve or 1/2" fitting stuck inside 3/4" fittings. Good luck and hopefully the problem don't come back again.

[nonteepical]

how does a battery end up in a water line? obviously had to be put in there during construction.

[jeffreyd]

the one question that comes into play from your post above, is that you were working near a valve. did you by chance move the ball or test the ball for movement? having worked on fire fighting equipment as a career, we were plumbers just in tighter quarters. the ball will have some minor movement but the chance that it is worn down on the arbor is pretty good. so while you may have moved it around without even knowing it, when the pressure hits it just right it could move the ball and partially close it down. then when you open the line again, your pressure is lower. one way to check is to close the valve by the handle, then slowly start opening if the handle turns before you get any resistance from the ball unseating then that could be your issue. good luck.