If you’ve got a PVC water-supply line that’s dripping, you could put a bucket under it and use it to irrigate the garden, but there’s a better way.
Bruce Calderwood uses another coupling to stop the leak that’s probably coming from a poorly adhered coupling that’s already on the water line. Here’s what he does.
First you want to drain the line and let it dry thoroughly, or this isn’t going to work. Then you get another coupling similar to the one that is leaking and you cut it in half. The important thing here is that the half that you are going to use doesn’t have the stop on the inside, because you want it to slide on the pipe, and that stop would get in the way. Now you need to remove about 40% of the coupling so that you can snap it onto the side of the leaking pipe. Slather the inside of the patch with PVC adhesive, making sure that you get plenty on the factory edge, which is the side you want up against the leak. Spread adhesive around the pipe where you will be maiking the patch. Then snap the patch onto the pipe and slide it into place and let it dry overnight. That’s going to stop our leak.
Bruce, that’s a great tip. Thanks for sending that in.
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View Comments
Great tip. I have a leak and will fix it next week-end.
If the coupling is leaking, then the connection between the two pipes is faulty and needs to be replaced. The patch does not address this-the connection could still fail-come apart.
For about the same amount of time, the job could have been done right.
I like your article. Love your it support
That's an interesting plumbing fix although if you're not a very adept plumber, I can foresee you having a whole string og coupling on the pipe before the leak actually gets fixed! Worth a shot though until you can get into everything and do a proper replacement!