Replies

1. 
   patrick_mccombe | Aug 14, 2012 08:36am | #1

   I've never used the bread trick. Instead I've always opted to blow out the lines with a compressor and blow gun. It always worried me to have organic material floating around in my drinking water. You could also use a shark bite coupling that's attached to a valve. Then you could work from that point with no drip. Sweat short lengths of pipe onto the valve before connecting it to the system though.

2. 
   DanH | Aug 14, 2012 08:49am | #2

   Take apart the faucet and make sure there are no hard bits stuck in it.

   And, of course, if there's an aerator remove that and flush the faucet.

1. 
   mitch | Aug 18, 2012 12:15pm | #3

   thanks, guys...

   i'd originally put much more complete info into my post, but somehow "triggered the spam filter" with two whole paragraphs of strictly plumbing related verbiage.  so i had to go back to the bare minimum before it would let it thru.

   the line in question is a straight shot to an outdoor spigot, so no worries about crud stuck in the line.  the unstoppable drip was likely due to a faulty old shut off valve (that would be a MAJOR %&*$#% to replace) so it was far worse than the usual bit of annoying drainage in a low spot- it was almost enough to make a steady trickle.  so i probably way overdid the breadball trick just to be sure and it ended up taking almost 5 full days before it dissolved.

   after the fact, my wife was chatting with one of her morning coffee buddies at the Y, who happens to be the bldg maintenance mgr, and he said he sometimes installs a ball valve (either sweats a male NPT or uses a valve with a compression fitting- like a sink or toilet, depending) then can poke out the bread or pull out the bit of rag.  then the valve serves as a shut-off for the rest of the repair and the water is back on immediately.  oh well, next time...

1. 
   DanH | Aug 18, 2012 01:27pm | #4

   The big guys actually have "blankets" they wrap around the pipe and inject CO2 into to freeze the pipe.  Used to deal with situations where there is no shutoff valve (or at least not one that won't shut down half the city).

   Of course, the other trick is to simply open several other valves in the system to drain the water.  One could probably even rig a shop vac to one of the other valves to suck the water that direction.