Ahh.. makes sense.

It looks to me like the original pvc female adapter was faulty. It seemed
to shear off right at the end of the threads.

"Speedy Jim" wrote in message
t...
Coloradotrout wrote:

Jim,

After thinking about this for a bit, maybe the pvc female -to- copper
male
is stronger?

A pvc male will be limted to the thickness of the material less the
material
removed for the threads. A pvc female however, can be as thick as it
comes
with the material removed from inside of it.

Just thinking that a pvc male adapter is going to be pretty thin
material.
The pvc female could be pretty thick.. well.. at least to thickness of
the
manufacturer.


No. The problem is that the threads are tapered.
As you tighten your male copper fitting into the
female PVC fitting, the taper forces the PVC to expand
until it cracks (maybe not immediately, but certainly
after the hole has been backfilled bg)




"Speedy Jim" wrote in message
. net...

Coloradotrout wrote:

I have a 15 year-old home.

Water line between street(meter) and home was leaking (line is about 60
feet).

A large sinkhole developed. I dug down 7' to find the solid copper
line
from the house joined to PVC. The connection was as follows.

3/4" copper line from house (10') -- brazed to 1" female

connector -- 1"

male nipple w/ threads to 3/4" male threaded fitting (solid brass) --

PVC

3/4" female thread to 3/4" slip -- 3/4" pvc pipe

The PVC slip connector sheared off. All of these are RH threads, and
no
unions. So it all had to be assembled sequentially.

How do I fix this? The right solution in my mind is to run a new
trench

and

lay continuous copper. I don't believe that is feasible. We are

looking to

spend another 1-2 years here. But I hate leaving anyone a problem

waiting

to happen. Going to Lowes/HD, the best I can come up with is:

3/4" copper line from house -- 3/4" union -- short copper pipe --

3/4"

male thread adapter -- 3/4" PVC female thread adapter to slip -- pvc

pipe

The original solution was 4 joints. The above is 6. Thoughts?

(would a

3/4" female adapter -- 3/4" male pvc to slip be better)

I can do basic sweating of copper. But I've never brazed. Should my

copper

joints be brazed?

Thoughts? Ideas? Volunteers (just kidding.. at least half way)




No need for brazing. The PVC is the weak link here, weaker than
soldered connections.

BUT.....DO use a PVC Male adapter going into a Female copper
adapter.
That will be waaaaay stronger than using a Female PVC (as you
suspected).

You can avoid the PVC slip joint. Get a copper "repair coupling".
This has no internal ridge and can be slipped over the ends of 2 pieces
of pipe. If you can, move this splice back from the PVC connection
a foot or so to keep from heating the PVC. The copper Female adapter
can be soldered onto a short length of copper working outside the
trench.

Another approach would be to put a 3/4" Union in the line.
Normally, one wouldn't bury a union in the service, but given
all the other connections, I don't see it making any difference.

Jim