Redeye wrote:
after a rather more eventful weekend than i was hoping for, i'm hoping
somebody can explain this....

i finished plumbing in everything in my new bathroom a couple of weeks
ago. no real problems and all went quite well. so, i was a bit
surprised to be woken at 1am on saturday to the sound of water running
and a hysterical girlfriend. it appears that one of the compression
joints has spontaneously exploded, allowing mains pressure water to go
everywhere. fortunately no real damage done, just a lot of mopping up
to do downstairs.

the bit i don't understand is why this joint went so suddenly. here's
the facts :

you are not the only one to have done this
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-co...2/in92015.html
but then
picture of what will happen if you over tighten a compression fitting
http://www.calormarineshop.co.uk/boa...on_fitting.htm