Push fit plastic joints on copper pipes? Is it a good idea?

I have got to get to the bottom of her problems, she is one crazy woman so it appears. She phoned me yesterday to confirm wether I was going to be able come to sort her problems next coming Sunday, as i had already let her down last sunday! If not, she said, she will get another plumber to replace her perfectly less than I year old boiler from Wickes!

My brother (her son in law) does not want her to spend any more money from her meagre life savings! so i need to act fast, I might even go there before Sunday!

Any findings i will post here, and take some pictures of her electrics, and plumbing, i have already taken pictures of her failed plastic joint, I will try and put those pictures on here.
 
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Agile do you have a Tv Broadcast Engineering background ?

I think that I must have done to have had lunch in the staff restaurant with an expert on high power UHF klystrons!

He died a year ago so only now can I mention his tinnitis!

Tony
 
Now I have a theory, so i will be further investegating her electrical installation, I beleive that her electrics is responsible for the noise, there may be some applaince like say the fridge, which comes on and off as its compressor motor switches on and off, and it draws current, and I beleive this current is not flowing through the normal Neuteral circuit but may be passing through the earth circuit.

possible but it won't be causing any more noise than if it were flowing through the neutral although granted it may be a higher impedance through the earth that could effect the running of motors etc

Oh you never know, some people can wire fridges wrongly in the 3 pin plug top, the blue wire could have been wired to the earth pin! and the earth wire to the Neuteral pin!

again possible, but easily checked

So this is where her troubles stsrted 3 years ago, before that she had underfloor heating, so when the first installer ran the heating in copper pipes, and used plastic joints, the pipes were no good to act as a secondary earth conductor, and may be (I am suspecting) that her earth circuit is doddgy or not continuous, or perhaphs another electrician (DIY) may have incorrectly carried out her installaition where he may have run her kitchen and boiler earths via the copper pipes instead of using a proper earth conductor within the T&E, or even perhaphs a broken seperate earth conductor.

you're thinking too much mike, pipes are not secondary earths and for the rest ......you're thinking too much!

Therefore I am now thinking that perhaps this is where her noise problems are arrising from, the earth current flowing through her pipe work, are passing through the water, causing sufficient current to pass through, to run the fridge, and in turn may be causing electrolysis, and hissing sound that she only hears, and generating bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen, and this then travels through the pipes, and then collects at the higher spots, and so on.

far to much mate
I have not ruled out that her neighbours may be responsible for somthing they are using that might be producing leathal microwave radiation, or anything for that matter!

far far too much
 
Matt1e, beleive me I am the only one who thinks she may not be suffering from this dredful thing in her ears, all the rest of her family, her sons, dauthers and all those numerous engineers/plumbers who she had been calling to reactify her noise problem have drawn blank! and they all think their mum or this lady is going insane, and she herself will not accept that there is a very strong possibility that something may well be wrong inside her head.

But once I have checked over her installation, both electrical and pipework, and if I do not find anything unusual, I am quite likely to be dissapointed, but as a last resort, I am going to play a mind game with her, and this might convince her that all the noise is now gone!

Unless she really is suffering from it!

The mind game will be, when I finsih checking her installation, and the the plumber guy replaces all her plastic fittings with copper, then we both will convince her that yes there was a big issue there! and that we found the cause of that noise, and we will tell her how right she was! and convince her that whilst we could not hear the noise but it was there and that she must have a sharp hearing! and then convince her that noise is no longer there as the fault on the pipes and earthing has been put right!

hopefully the mind game will work, if this doesn't work then I have no idea what else to do!

TBH, her problem is cracking me up too!
 
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Nothing in her house can create a noise which only she can hear!

If she thinks she can hear something then she needs medical attention to diagnose it.

Replacing a year old boiler for no reason is a sign that she needs mental/psychological help too. Yet you dont want to encourage her to seek help for that.

You really do have some mad technical ideas yourself !
 
push fit is better than copper in most places in my opinion. :LOL:

Really? Push fits are definately easier and quicker but not nearly as long lasting as copper.
I would say copper is best. A push fit will always be prone to blowing off or the seal failing at some point but copper is there to stay if its done right.
It'll only fail if it freezes and bursts but that should all be thought of at point of install.
Plus the copper is impermeable to any contaminents and more solid structurally so less chance of twisting taps or sagging pipes etc as it has a bracing effect.
Nope, my love affair with copper will never die.
:LOL:
 
I am thinking of how many Google searches will arrive at this plumbing thread unexpectedly and the varied interests that will never have considered the connection possibilities.
 
Agile";p="2271417 said:
Nothing in her house can create a noise which only she can hear!
Agree somewhat, true in the case of older people, but youngsters can hear high pitch whistle eminating from switched mode powersupplies, my TV was like that when it was on standby, my 13 year old niece could hear it and asked me what is that noise uncle? and I said what noise?

and she was right it was my TV on blank screen with no video signal as the video player had stopped and the TV went into a standby mode. All the while I thought it was off.


[quote="Agile";p="2271417"If she thinks she can hear something then she needs medical attention to diagnose it.
Thats why her son in law came over from the States to arrange for various consultaions and tests, last year her daughter came to see i9f she could hear any noises herself, she didn't obviously. And before that I was the first one to be blunt with her and told her that it is not impossible to hear noises within one's head, and there is a medical condition for this i told her, but she would not buy my story. because she always insited it was from within her house and why then as soon as she steps out of her home the noise stops. This is why we are all getting stuck here, why does she not then hear this noise anywhere else?

[quote="Agile";p="2271417"Replacing a year old boiler for no reason is a sign that she needs mental/psychological help too. Yet you dont want to encourage her to seek help for that.
Okay because she is adamant that the noise is coming from the central heatimg and is is highly convinced that it is her boiler, she is about to replace it yet again, i heard from another relative she had been asking a cousin if she knows any good plumber! I got to stop her before it is too late, I am planning to get there tomorrow.



[quote="Agile";p="2271417"You really do have some mad technical ideas yourself
All her family and my brother, is effected with all this and so for 3 years no one can come to any conclusion, so I took upon myself to see if I can get to the bottom of this mystry noise, and so I need to leave no stone unturned.


(sorry i can't seem to box the quotes! )
 
Quick reality check, if the boiler is off, can she hear the noise?

Yes that was the first thing we did, asked her to switch it off at the mains spur, but the noise still came, that is when I was blunt with her that it is impossible for the noise to come if the boiler is off!

So she then said can it be the pipes? and that then left us scratching our head!!

I obviously said why should the pipes make noise when the boiler is off?

She said she can hear right under her bed where the pipes were laid!

but I did not have tools with me to check under her floor boards when I went to investigate thsi problem 2 years ago.

I tried to convince here that people can hear things in their head as we get older! She was not convinced.
 
There is only one test you need to do at the house! Thats to turn off the mains electricity without telling her exactly when and see if she can tell you when it went off.

Similarly for the mains water.

Those tests are all you need to do.

She is obviously old and her hearing probably does not extend to above 6 kHz. But if you really believe that she can still hear high frequencies beyone what the rest of her family can hear then ( at a cost ) I will bring round my ultrasonic test meter!

405 line TVs had a line frequency of 10 kHz which was easy to hear. On 625 line sets its over 15 kHz and few people over 25 can still hear that. Many sets derived their power from circuits based on that line frequency. Normal SM power supplies now mostly operate at higher frequencies to reduce the size/cost/weight of iron cored components.

People who are mad will never accept it and just believe its the rest of the world at fault. Some people even say that I am mad but I know that its just because they are mad.

Tony
 
There is only one test you need to do at the house! Thats to turn off the mains electricity without telling her exactly when and see if she can tell you when it went off.

Similarly for the mains water.

Those tests are all you need to do.

She is obviously old and her hearing probably does not extend to above 6 kHz. But if you really believe that she can still hear high frequencies beyone what the rest of her family can hear then ( at a cost ) I will bring round my ultrasonic test meter!

405 line TVs had a line frequency of 10 kHz which was easy to hear. On 625 line sets its over 15 kHz and few people over 25 can still hear that. Many sets derived their power from circuits based on that line frequency. Normal SM power supplies now mostly operate at higher frequencies to reduce the size/cost/weight of iron cored components.

People who are mad will never accept it and just believe its the rest of the world at fault. Some people even say that I am mad but I know that its just because they are mad.

Tony

Thanks mate, that sounds a very good idea, if all else is off, there should be no noise from any source, it should be pin drop silence, I must give it a go , splendid! we did not switch off the entire mains. as well as switch off the water supply completly too. thanks for a great idea.
 
push fit is better than copper in most places in my opinion. :LOL:

Really? Push fits are definately easier and quicker but not nearly as long lasting as copper.
I would say copper is best. A push fit will always be prone to blowing off or the seal failing at some point but copper is there to stay if its done right.
It'll only fail if it freezes and bursts but that should all be thought of at point of install.
Plus the copper is impermeable to any contaminents and more solid structurally so less chance of twisting taps or sagging pipes etc as it has a bracing effect.
Nope, my love affair with copper will never die.
:LOL:

that would be my personal preference too, all in copper and use yorkshire fittings (solder ring for virtual guarantee leak free joints)

since having seen one slipped out, I would be reluctant to use plastic ones, but use them nevertheless when copper ones aren't available.
 

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