another Leak story!!

[Farooko]

Hi all
I was watching tele and a cold droplet of water landed on my bald head. And when I looked up, I could see on the ceiling a wet patch . I went upstairs, removed the carpet and floor board and could see water might be dripping from the tee (please see the picture attached). I got few questions and would like your help please:

- What is the green gunk/stuff that can be seen in the picture?
- Do I need to drain the whole heating system down to replace the tee? Ive got vented gravity fed system in the loft. Or I can use the rubber bungs in the water tank?

Thank you all.

 

[ericmark]

In theory you can freeze the pipes, in practise normally drain the system, the freeing packs are nearly the same price as the additive which will need replacing.

The oxides of copper are yellow and blue, one I think is cupric the other cuprous depends on how many oxygen modules, was never very good at chemistry, so mixture of the two is green.

I no longer try DIYing this sort of problem, I now get a plumber, or should he be called a cuper if he works in copper, plumber means a worker of lead, but don't care if called a heating and ventilation engineer, even if really to be an engineer one should have over level three qualifications (i.e. a degree) I want some one who has spares on his van, so if it goes wrong, they can still fix it.

 

[Madrab]

Yes you can bung the feed and vent and then just drain at that point to replace that tee. Shutting off the rads would minimise the water loss too but you would need to be careful about airlocks.

You may get away with backing the nut off half a turn and then nipping it back up. Compression fittings rarely need replaced, it's usually just down to an end/olive that's letting by a little and just needs nipped up.

The green gunk it just a little copper corrosion from the CH liquid and nothing to really worry about, will clean up with a green scourer.

 

[Madrab]

plumber means a worker of lead

When I did my original plumbing training we were trained to work with lead - window flashing, chimneys, aprons, lead slates etc

They don't train the boys in that any more I don't think, left to the roofer now or bought ready made

 

[ericmark]

When I did my original plumbing training we were trained to work with lead - window flashing, chimneys, aprons, lead slates etc

I watched my dad wiping a lead pipe, needs a lot of skill, like gas welding aluminium, but also watched pipe fitters, grinding 36 inch pipes so when lifted into position they fitted first time, that also needed a lot of skill, they used a lot of interferometry which is hardly required to fit 38 mm pipes, so no sure what you call people who work with 15 mm copper, not plumbers, as even the solder today does not contain lead, and not pipe fitters, so what are they called without swearing?