Heating Help

underground condensate pipe leak repair

a leak was discovered in a 1 1/4 inch underground condensate pipe - pictured below is the original expansion joint that leaked and the repair using a flexible stainless steel vibration pipe.

its a challenge to correct.  first its a 90 degree turn, which means that expansion comes from two directions.  also since its underground, its very difficult to achieve pipe alignment so a sliding expansion joint will not work very well (the originally installed sliding expansion joint leaked)

 I am interested to know views on whether the flexible vibration pipe installed below will be successful. the cavity will remain open and not filled in.

thanks

you can always

braze those joints if your worried about future leakage.

linear expansion issue

in posting this, i guess my concern about the work is that the flexible vibration pipe insert is not designed for expansion and contraction.

right now, the expansion coming from one side of the pipe is probably ok, but the other side would seem to scrunch up and potentially over compressing the braided pipe fitting.

this pressure may compromise the solder seals on each side of braided pipe, but more concerning might be expansion pressure along the pipe area not visable and further under the floor.

when pipe lenghth expands 1/2-1 inch, how will piping handle this expansion? the braided pipe length is not designed for likely scrunching of this insert.

ideally, the flexible piece should be bowed (ie. a wave installation).

thoughts?

I would

Definately get rid of the braided line. Replace it with copper L and braze the joints. If you really want you can get K type soft tubing and that will handle it a little better. Bury your lines in sand or crushed limestone. Those lines won't cary any steam so the temp won't be off the charts.

k type copper tubing coil

we were thinking about using coiled copper tubing but its 1 1/4 inch - would it be possible to coil this size pipe properly in a 10 inch space?


burying this section of piping may be problematic - needs to be watched to see if any leaking happens over time

do you like idea of using a flexible stainless steel pipe link?

thanks

make the repair

in standard copper L. the temp shouldn't be high enough to where its going to be a problem anytime soon. that repair may outlive anything else.

can it be coiled

can a 1 1/4 inch pipe be coiled within a 10 inch space (should the copper L pipe be coiled (ie. to allow for expansion when pipe gets hot) or inserted as a straight piece)

if straight, can it handle a 1/2 to 1 inch expansion

thanks

Re: Water Leaking

This kind of leaks generally occurs due to corrosion and that due to poor infrastructure of the underground pipes as it can be overcome by informing best plumbers and leak detection services .They will heal your problem and makes you stress free.
http://www.allkaregroup.co.uk/leaking-pipes-repair.html