Leaking pipe underneath kitchen sink

[spiidey]

One of the pipes underneath the kitchen sink is dripping, as shown in attached pictures.

Its not flooding the cabinet underneath the sink by any means, its very much a slow drip but it doesn't seem to stop regardless of whether water is running through the taps or not.

Anything we can do to fix this without calling in a plumber?



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[duffin]

looks like the hot feed for the tap.are you sure it's not leaking from the valve above it? a bit green...try wrapping a piece of kitchen roll around pipes. but if not, a bit of a problem if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[duffin]

if you want to try, could cut out offending elbow and put on a flexi.

 

[joe-90]

Wrap some kitchen roll around the pipe further up to make sure that is is leaking where you think it is and not running down the pipe.

Solder joints (even messy ones) rarely suddenly start to leak.

 

[spiidey]

Thanks, will try the kitchen roll and report back.

 

[spiidey]

Having done a bit more investigating, it appears that the drip starts right at the top of the pipe in the picture below, in the area circled in red.



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The other side of this pipe (i.e. the top of the worktop) is the kitchen tap, pictured below.



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Any advice on next steps?

 

[Biguns]

unbelievable, someone has soldered the tails onto the supply pipes. You need to cut the tails, check the o ring seal, re tighten the tails into the tap and fit 2 flexi's

 

[spiidey]

unbelievable, someone has soldered the tails onto the supply pipes. You need to cut the tails, check the o ring seal, re tighten the tails into the tap and fit 2 flexi's

Thanks. I'm not a plumber so some of your very helpful reply I'm struggling to follow.

Could you expand on the above / dumb it down for me into lay mans terms?

 

[Biguns]

The 2 pipes which go into the tap body are the tails (hot and cold). They are screwed into the tap base and are sealed with a small rubber 'o' ring. In your case it would seem that one of the'o' rings is damaged or the tail is not screwed into the tap body tight enough. Normaly these tails are connected to the supply pipes with flexy pipes which have a compression fitting on each end. However whoever fitted your tap has done it the hard way by soldering the tails to the supply pipes. This makes your job more difficult.
If you are not sure what you are doing I would not attempt this.;- Shut off the hot and cold water supplies. Open all your taps. With a junior hack saw cut through the tails as low as you can ( have a basin under the pipes ) They will then screw out of the tap body check the seals are sound and replace if neccessary, or you could put 2 new tails in. Fit compression flexis to the tails. Cut the supply pipes at an appropriate distance and fit the flexy's to them. Crack open your stop cocks and turn off the taps. Check for leaks. If ok fully turn on stop cocks. Good luck

 

[Biguns]

Or you could fit 2 of these into your tap and connect to the supply pipes




http://www.diy.com/nav/fix/plumbing...ector-15-x-10-x-300mm-11478198?skuId=11988905

 

[spiidey]

The one thing we haven't tried is tightening the nut near the top of the pipe that feeds the tap, but it is impossible to get into with a normal spanner as the gap is too small for the handle to get into (due to the basin of the sink blocking that area).

Is there a smaller handled spanner we could use that doesn't cost the earth, or another way to try and do this?

 

[sooey]

The nut just holds the tap to the sink, nothing to do with the leak. snugib has told you exactly what's wrong and what to do about it.