I have a *friend* who knows someone who had a new boiler fitted.
The fit saw the system change from a header tank and hot water tank to a combi system. So, the hot water line went from head height pressure to mains pressure. Aside from the loops taking out the feed to the tank, no modifications were made to the hot water line.
Within 48 hours of commissioning, a weakness in a push fitting of the hot water feed to the shower, hidden within a stud wall, failed allowing an escape of hot water.
question, should the hot water pipework have been pressure tested as a result of this boiler change and as part of the commissioning process?
forgot to add..the push fit fitting was existing work taken over in the house that had been occupied for six years.
No
When you make a join in pipework you don't make it any differently whether you are working on low pressure or mains pressure.
Just unlucky and the victim of either a failed fitting (seen too many push fit hence I use a crimp system now) or a lazy plumber.
Always an unknown on doing work on a house with hidden fittings. My mate is a boiler man and the mother in law needs a boiler. He wants to pressure the system, but knows it would spell disaster. So is putting an open system instead, as not trusting the father in laws plumbing !!. Personally I don't like pushfits, unless they can be seen for those reasons you stated on the leak. They 'should' be good enough, but I don't think you can better soldered or compression fittings or pipe bending on hidden pipework.
the plumber cant be expected to inspect every fitting but it is being said that he should have pressure tested the existing hot water line to make sure it would cope with mains pressure..thats the crux of it, IMO.
Pressure test may not have found it, it might have taken a significant number of hot-cold cycles under pressure to cause the leak. How do you account for that?
What's the difference between it failing under a pressure test or under use? You've still got to bosh through the wall to find and fix it.
Bear. In theory you are right in practice its no the case.
Previous plumber in my gaff on a non pressured system disnt use inserts in the poly pipe.
Chased 3 popped inserts a week after i installed a pressured combi.
Ripped out all the polypipe and redid it correctly and have had no issues since.
Nowt wrong with plaggy pipe/push fit if installed correctly.
Tthew..about £20k worth of damage difference.
Hot mains water escaping while the occupier was out for the day.
So it is good practice to pressure test or not?
I'm none too concerned about the pros and cons of push fit fittings.
My point was mines passed a 3bar pressure test and held 1.5 bar for a week before going pop.
Almost always an installation issue.
I had some plastic pneumatic push-fits tested the other day. Took almost 100 bar to fail them with water, & that's the nylon tube bursting first.
Have to question the use of a push fit sealed in a wall.
It may be 'good' practice to pressure test, but its not common to do it. Its a situation which with water will always risk , whether mains or gravity fed water. I have 2 boosted showers in the house at 2 bar and I soldered everything and couldn't test and inspect as flushed into the walls, although tested before skimming and tiling, but I couldn't see all the fittings. The push fit was obviously not done correct by the previous plumber, so I guess the liability is open to be honest. Push fits should take mains pressure without question. I guess that's why there is home insurance.
It may be 'good' practice to pressure test, but its not common to do it. Its a situation which with water will always risk , whether mains or gravity fed water. I have 2 boosted showers in the house at 2 bar and I soldered everything and couldn't test and inspect as flushed into the walls, although tested before skimming and tiling, but I couldn't see all the fittings. The push fit was obviously not done correct by the previous plumber, so I guess the liability is open to be honest. Push fits should take mains pressure without question. I guess that's why there is home insurance.
Trail - you got the lazy plumber, not the bad fitting.
or too tight!
We pressure test most parts of an installation before it is covered in, but we don't test anything existing
I prefer to think of him as the c**t
Bag of inserts is 2 quid grippet bam
I redid it in push fit but with inserts - been fine for a year now
I once fitted a kitchen in a house, the owner watching me for a few minutes whilst I connected the sink in JG Speedfit. He picks up a super seal inset and ask's "what's this for? not seen those before" He 1st fixed the entire place himself in Speedfit……
did you watch it all go pop pop pop when you turned the stop cock back on 😀
I remember the day mine went - sitting waiting on a taxi in November at 4am
heating kicks in.
followed by a knocking noise and then a loud wooooosh as the heating system emptied its self into my crawl space..... had a quick look under the floor and saw no inserts so nothing I could do.
Mrs T-R wasn't a happy bunny tht I was pissing off to 20 deg + and leaving her with no heating or hot water(we only had heating for 1 week since moving in 8 months before 😀 )
Managed to get my dad to go and replumb the poly for me that weekend.