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Compression Plumbing Fittings

  
  
  

compression fittingWhen you go to replace a plumbing fixture, it is sometimes intimidating trying to figure out how everything goes together without leaking. You've probably seen a threaded fitting that you would screw a hose bib or a water supply line onto. If you've not done much plumbing, you may not be very familiar with a compression fitting.

A compression fitting is used on a bare copper pipe. A nut goes over the pipe, then a soft ferrule and finally the fixture or water supply line, or whatever it is you are connecting to the pipe. This all gets squeezed together tightly. The soft ferrule gets sandwiched in between the nut and the fixture. As it gets squeezed, the ferrule molds itself to whatever gaps there are between the nut and fixture, eliminating leaks.

When you go to replace a fixture that uses a compression fitting, the old ferrule is very difficult to get off the pipe. You almost have to score it and split it open, or grab it and rotate in back-and-forth while pulling it off the pipe. For this reason, I generally leave the old ferrule and nut on the pipe and reuse them with the new fixture. It sure beats damaging the pipe, and if you get a small leak, just tighten the nut another quarter-turn.

Plumbing 101: Low Water Pressure vs Low Water Volume

  
  
  

low water pressureI got a call from a customer that she were having a problem with her plumbing: low water pressure. This is a common description from homeowners that is used generically for many different water problems. In this case, the homeowner was complaining about whenever she showered, if someone turned on a faucet, the water would dramatically decrease in the shower to the point that she couldn't shower until that faucet was turned off. We see this happen with pressure balancing anti-scald shower valves to avoid someone getting scalded if, for example, someone flushes the toilet. This type of valve intentionally lowers the hot water pressure to keep the temperature constant when there is a sudden draw of cold water. That wasn't the case with this though. The problem was uniform throughout the house, and not just isolated to that particular shower.

People often misuse the term low water pressure. In this case, the water pressure was fine. We put a water pressure gauge on the hose bib and the incoming pressure was nearly 75 psi. This is considered very strong water pressure. The problem here was the water volume. You can have strong water pressure but poor water volume. The result is a weak shower.

The first thing to check is the main water valves. In this case we went to the street and the water meter was turned on only about halfway, effectively cutting the water volume in half. Simply turning the valve all the way to the open position solved this customer's shower issue.

Had this not solved her volume problem, we would have done more investigating starting with the shut-off valve in the garage. It happened to be a gate valve which has a reputation for causing problems, such as the gate breaking off and partially or completely blocking the flow of water.

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