Failed JG speedfit fitting!

I got home to the sound of running water last night from the hot connection under the kitchen sink.  Mercifully, it was the kitchen sink and downstairs with hard floors so hopefully no real damage done other than maybe a blown plinth board (the carcass seems like it might have got lucky!).

The speedfit connection seems to have failed around the locking collar.  It looks like it just exploded into dust.  There’s one large fragment left that has some bits on it that looks like the plastic has crumbled, almost the texture of sandstone in places (ie, scratch it with my nail and it crumbles away).

A few centimetres above this connection there is a compression fitting for the flexi tap tails and this looks to have some white corrosion build up on the outside.  Is there any likelihood that this fallen / dripped onto the plastic and made it weak?  Or maybe there’s some cleaning product etc that has made contact and weakened it?  The rest of the fitting looks fine.

Has anyone seen this before?  Obviously it’s an easy fix with a new fitting, but I’d like to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

I have not seen it – and so far I have re-plumbed three houses in plastic…

That said, we had a water leak upstairs back in May that was due to a Polyplumb fitting popping off a pipe hidden in the wall behind shower. Our fitting was totally intact. The pipe was cut wonky and had a few scratch marks on, looking like it had been fitted a couple of times…

Typically, I had re-piped most of the feed to upstairs shower, and had not replaced last couple of metres due to it being hidden in a wall that would need a re-plaster, so saved a few quid and didn’t inspect or change what was hidden in wall…and that was last right angle into the shower.

Do you have a picture? I’m on a heating engineer course at the moment and the lecturer is swearing by Speedfit. I’d like to see what he has to say.

That would be interesting to hear about an expert opinion….

Photos available here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fpRWoXzRv6DYk89u8

Thanks.

just in the process of replumbing our ensuite with speed it!  now you’ve worried me

has someone used solvent weld?

has someone used solvent weld?

Not deliberately, and it was me that put it in.  I guess it’s possible there was some accidental contamination from the drainage installation.

Pic 6. Looks like limescale. Compression joint ‘weeping’. Needs slackening off, cleaning, wipe of Boss White around olive, then reassembling.

Pic 6. Looks like limescale.

It’s been weeping for a long time to generate that much limescale…

Yep, I need to address that compression joint.  Can limescale then weaken the plastic below?

Did you use a pipe insert at the compression fitting? If not that would explain the “leak”.

Did you use a pipe insert at the compression fitting? If not that would explain the “leak”.

+1 in fact looking at the last pic of the install is there even enough length of pipe between fittings for an insert in both ends?

For me I’d be having a 1/2″ to 15mm male coupling at the tap tail, then compression fitting and copper pipe into the Speedfit elbow, with Boss White at the compression fitting. No need for PTFE tape.

the failed plastic is interesting though. PEX is not supposed to corrode in normal use so perhaps a corrosive substance was spilled on the fitting at some point.

99% certain there’s an insert under the compression fitting.  I have seen that before, and I’d expect it to have failed catastrophically well before now if that was the case!  There’s plenty of length there for it, the angle of the photo makes it look shorter.  I’ll be fixing that pronto though, maybe just a copper tail straight to the speedfit, I’ll see what I’ve got around.

Indeed, I’m still curious about the plastic.  I guess I can only assume there was some sort of spillage.

I’d get hold of a JG sales rep or customer service and get their opinion. I wouldn’t have expected the plastic to have crumbled like that.

I used to deal with lots of claims of failed push fit plumbing, and it was surprising how often even something like sink cleaner could corrode the plastic fittings. I had one case where cleaning products were dripping down through the tap hole onto a fitting, which (after a few years) blew and flooded the expensive showroom below.

I’ve been using JG Speedfit since it 1st came out and the only failures I’ve seen have been when not installed correctly or with scratches to the pipe.  I’ve not personally seen a fitted fall to bits, I’d suspect chemical attack rather than natural failure.

polyplumb on the other hand, wouldn’t use it if it was free!