Have been investigating a small leak and found a suspect Cuprofit elbow in a really unaccessible place. Supplies a new towel rail feed and the leak can be seen from the kitchen below when view thro a downlight opening. The elbow turns up the wall right on the line of a joist and the floor in the bathroom is fully finished (no-more-ply/UFH/tiles)

Will Fernox cure this? Pipe is not p**sing water but is dripping at a constant rate. How does the Fernox work and is there a limit to what it can do?

Anyone have any advice?

"Cordless Crazy" wrote in message
...

Cordless Crazy;2277540 Wrote:
Have been investigating a small leak and found a suspect Cuprofit elbow
in a really unaccessible place. Supplies a new towel rail feed and the
leak can be seen from the kitchen below when view thro a downlight
opening. The elbow turns up the wall right on the line of a joist and
the floor in the bathroom is fully finished (no-more-ply/UFH/tiles)

Will Fernox cure this? Pipe is not p**sing water but is dripping at a
constant rate. How does the Fernox work and is there a limit to what it
can do?

Anyone have any advice?


It doesn't fix leaks for a start. It is added to central heating systems to
preventing rusting and sludging.

Ash wrote:
"Cordless Crazy" wrote in
message ...

Cordless Crazy;2277540 Wrote:
Have been investigating a small leak and found a suspect Cuprofit
elbow in a really unaccessible place. Supplies a new towel rail
feed and the leak can be seen from the kitchen below when view thro
a downlight opening. The elbow turns up the wall right on the line
of a joist and the floor in the bathroom is fully finished
(no-more-ply/UFH/tiles) Will Fernox cure this? Pipe is not p**sing water
but is dripping at
a constant rate. How does the Fernox work and is there a limit to
what it can do?

Anyone have any advice?


It doesn't fix leaks for a start. It is added to central heating
systems to preventing rusting and sludging.

Fernox Leak Sealer fixes leaks.
http://www.fernox.com/?cccpage=leak_sealer_ls_i&sub=4


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Oct 23, 6:57*pm, Cordless Crazy Cordless.Crazy.
wrote:
Supplies a new towel rail feed and the leak can be
seen from the kitchen below when view thro a downlight
opening. The elbow turns up the wall right on the
line of a joist and the floor in the bathroom is fully
finished (no-more-ply/UFH/tiles)

I doubt very much the (electric) UFH actually run right up against the
pipework.

1 - You might be able to remove the floor tile
Take a stanley knife with HD blade. Run it along the grout repeatedly
until all gone. Take the widest paint scraper you can find. Insert it
part way into the grout line. Perhaps some tape on the back side to
prevent tile damage. Gently lever the tile up. Expose the area around
the pipe with care. Replace fittings as necessary, perhaps a solder
connection and use push-fit somewhere more accessible.

2 - It may be possible to replace it from below.
Remove part of the ceiling, erode the floorboard around the pipe away
using a long side-cutting drill bit or a small end-mill bit in a
drill. Then replace as before.

3 - Abandon existing piping & route new.
Route from the room behind - sink pipe into the wall, through the wall
into the towel rail.

4 - Abandon wet heating and use electric heating.
If the radiator is large and particularly if white you can probably
get a 150-250-350W element in there. Doesn't cost that much to run
even if it is used to stop the room cooling off much.

It's times like this that a digital photo of electrical installs is
worth its weight in gold :-)

Try and refit the existing joint entirely from below:
You can buy 600x600mm or similar pieces of plasterboard from DIY
stores (full sheet doesn't cost much), might be very simple to do it
"from below" and just put a new piece of plasterboard. Feather the old
plasterboard by sanding it, scrim tape, plaster over and sand smooth,
repeat with a very fine filler, repaint ceiling for £12 tin and done.

I'd examine the joint from below first. You may find you just need to
break any seal around the pipes & find someone has cut the pipe too
short so it isn't fully seating in the elbow.

Forget "leak stoppers", fix the problem properly or you could end up
with dry rot, smells, downstairs water damage when you are away and so
on.

On Oct 23, 11:11*pm, "js.b1" wrote:
I'd examine the joint from below first. You may find you just need to
break any seal around the pipes & find someone has cut the pipe too
short so it isn't fully seating in the elbow.

Forget "leak stoppers", fix the problem properly or you could end up
with dry rot, smells, downstairs water damage when you are away and so
on.
IMO this is a fine example of how sh** any pushfit system is when used
on central heating pipework. Yes it may be fine for a year or two but
then start to get odd drips here and there where pipes expand and
contract in the fittings. Add to that the dirt in the system then you
are onto a sure fire leaking system.

Im sure a lot of keen diyers like me go by the motto 'if a jobs worth
doing, its worth doing right' but then there are a lot who just get a
job done quick and store up problem for a few years time. Surely in
this case the only solution is to rip out all the pushfit and replace
with soldered copper!?

dave.

"Ash" wrote in message
...

"Cordless Crazy" wrote in message
...

Cordless Crazy;2277540 Wrote:
Have been investigating a small leak and found a suspect Cuprofit elbow
in a really unaccessible place. Supplies a new towel rail feed and the
leak can be seen from the kitchen below when view thro a downlight
opening. The elbow turns up the wall right on the line of a joist and
the floor in the bathroom is fully finished (no-more-ply/UFH/tiles)

Will Fernox cure this? Pipe is not p**sing water but is dripping at a
constant rate. How does the Fernox work and is there a limit to what it
can do?

Anyone have any advice?


It doesn't fix leaks for a start. It is added to central heating systems
to preventing rusting and sludging.


Fernox F4 Leak Sealer does.

mark

Dave Starling wrote:
IMO this is a fine example of how sh** any pushfit system is when used
on central heating pipework. Yes it may be fine for a year or two but
then start to get odd drips here and there where pipes expand and
contract in the fittings. Add to that the dirt in the system then you
are onto a sure fire leaking system.

Im sure a lot of keen diyers like me go by the motto 'if a jobs worth
doing, its worth doing right' but then there are a lot who just get a
job done quick and store up problem for a few years time. Surely in
this case the only solution is to rip out all the pushfit and replace
with soldered copper!?

I just had a chat on Friday with the heating engineer who will be
putting in our boiler - we're running all of the pipework for the CH
heating system and installing radiators and whatnot and he's doing the
gas installation and the commissioning.

He's recommended running most of the CH pipework in plastic (apart from
near the boiler) with accessible manifolds, which sounded fairly
sensible, but what surprised me was that he said "you shouldn't put
compression fittings under the floor, they should all be soldered" and
then later went on to say "for the joint between the plastic pipe under
the floor and the copper tail coming up to the radiator, use a polypipe
pushfit elbow".

To my mind a compression elbow would be a better choice for that joint.

I presume if a pushfit plastic system is pressure tested then it will be
fine in years to come?

On Saturday, 24 October 2009 10:06:13 UTC+1, Dave Starling wrote:
On Oct 23, 11:11*pm, "js.b1" wrote:
I'd examine the joint from below first. You may find you just need to
break any seal around the pipes & find someone has cut the pipe too
short so it isn't fully seating in the elbow.

Forget "leak stoppers", fix the problem properly or you could end up
with dry rot, smells, downstairs water damage when you are away and so
on.
IMO this is a fine example of how sh** any pushfit system is when used
on central heating pipework. Yes it may be fine for a year or two but
then start to get odd drips here and there where pipes expand and
contract in the fittings. Add to that the dirt in the system then you
are onto a sure fire leaking system.

Im sure a lot of keen diyers like me go by the motto 'if a jobs worth
doing, its worth doing right' but then there are a lot who just get a
job done quick and store up problem for a few years time. Surely in
this case the only solution is to rip out all the pushfit and replace
with soldered copper!?

dave.


I fitted Hep2O piping and fittings, more than 20 years ago, into a new extension and which bridged between copper CH and DH/C piping in the undercroft and copper piping in the first-floor services. In that time there hasn't been a suggestion of leak from any of the Wavin polybutylene product.

I used it again recently in fitting out a walk-in shower facility, again connecting an 'improved' similar product. This did leak, and I traced ( and corrected ) this to an inadequate full 'push'. It hasn't leaked again, in over a year.

It was far easier and cheaper for me to install than copper.

I consider I'm at greater risk from frost/freezing damage to copper piping than I am from modern plastic systems failure - and note that Wavin/HEP2O offer a 50-year product guarantee - and I've put my money where my mouf is......