On Mar 16, 6:58*am, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:
"Bert Byfield" wrote in message
.97.131...

There is white crud coming out of some of the copper joints.
What is
that? I expected green corrosion instead. Should I replace
all those
joints?

But my primary leak right now is where a water pipe has been
touching
the conduit for the main house power for fifty years or so,
and the
contact has caused a pinhole leak, of 5 or 6 gallons a day.
I'm
looking at inserting a "universal pipe repair clamp" between
the pipe
and the conduit, before I think about replacing sections of
pipe.

The white crud may just be surface corrosion. Clean it off, put a coating
like petroleum jelly on it and see if it comes right back. *Or it may be
minerals from the water if in fact there is a tiny leak. If a leak, it will
start in one spot and spread, *If corrosion, it usually goes around the
exposed solder.

As for the pin hole, fix it properly by cutting out a section and sweating
in a new one. *Then be sure it does not contact the hanger again. Any sort
of rubber will do the job.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Respectfully suggest that the reason for the pipe leak at the point of
abrasion with the conduit is and could be due to two factors.
(Possibly three!).
1) There is slight movement between the two. Possibly aggravated by
copper pipe expansion/contraction with temp of water, also vibration?
2) The conduit and pipe are two different metals. With the least of
moisture and/or condensation over a long period of time, a small point
of electrolytic corrosion between the two metals may have occurred?
3) There is remote possibility of very, very small voltages on the
grounded? conduit, which possibly could also lead to electrolytic
corrosion. In our house the water and electrical grounds and the
incoming conduit are not close together; however we have bonded the
cold water pipe to the main ground with a #2 AWG wire and marked it
with green tape. It is also bonded to another ground which happens to
be a loop of #6 AWG buried in the ground long ago when the house was
being built.Separate the pipe and the conduit. But suggest that id f
this only problem after 50 years do not start wholesale replacement of
half inch copper pipe. However if you ARE doing some renovations; e.g
bathroom then install new copper in that area only as you do the
renovation.
We have all half inch water plumbing, installed by myself nearly 40
years ago. Fairly acidic water, but no leaks.And when we renovated
bathroom some years ago did replace inaccessible copper, for that area
only, at that time. We initially used a well/septic system. But have
had municipal water for some 30 years; no problems with either.
If you do any replacements recommend use 'ball valves' and section
each part of the house system. They are more reliable since do not use
washers and turn on/off with a quarter turn!