Shark Bite saves the day!

John Pollman

Member
Messages
1,332
Location
Rochester Hills, MI
What a day I had!

Around noon I decided that I'd had enough of the dripping faucets in the bathroom. We have a double sink and one of the faucets just kept on dripping. The tub is the same way even though I've tried to rebuild it and it just won't quit dripping. They're all Delta faucets but after having a heck of a time just trying to get the handle off of the sink faucet to see which type of cartridge rebuild kit to get I decided to just go and buy two new faucets and a tub/shower valve kit. Upon looking below the sink and having to use pliers to shut the water off I decided to replace all of the shut off valves with new quarter turn models too. Of course, all new supply lines too.

I got home after picking up all of the material and went to work. Well to make a long story short it was a heck of a job. THREE trips to the store to get the right stuff and return a valve that was missing all of the compression nuts. I bought four braided stainless flexible supply lines and was in a hurry and didn't realize that they were TOILET supply lines and not sink supply lines.

I got the two new faucets mounted and went to reinstall the new shut off valves. I reworked some of the old plumbing because I didn't like the way the previous person did it. Well I had one joint that would just NOT quit leaking no matter what I did. It was a sweat fitting and after shutting the water off THREE times, draining the lines, cleaning it all again only to still have a pinhole leak in the joint. I was about ready to go through the ceiling. I decided to give the Shark Bite connectors a try for this one joint. Let me tell you, they're a bit expensive but they are SWEET! It took about three minutes to reassemble the joint and get things back in operation once I had the Shark Bite fitting.

I didn't finish the job until about 11:00 p.m. so I think I may wait a day or so until I tackle the new shower valve. :lol:

I hope you're having a better weekend than I've been having. :)

Take care

John
 
I kind of enjoy plumbing. But I'm pretty much the same way John, It takes me 3-4 trips to the store to get new parts or to replace stuff I've screwed up :rofl:
I saw those fittings on this old house recently. I think that they would save me a ton of curse words:rofl:
 
havnt used them john yet but have heard good things about them..my nephew is a apprentice plumber and he told me they were definatly a good product and that they had used them quit a bit in commercial applications.
 
I have a 15 year old double wide set on permanent foundation... everything is great except the plumbing... in 4 1/2 years living here, I think I've spent 6 months under the house fixing pipes... I'm slowly but surely replacing all of the joints under the house with the Shark bite fittings... at the price of them, before long the plumbing will be worth more than the house.
 
I tried them in our camper for joining PEX when I installed a water filter and I couldn't get in with my crimping tool Definitely in the "would use them again" category. As we remodel, any plumbing changes I do I cut out all the copper I need to change, sweat on a copper-PEX transition, and do PEX from there. I even replumbed our shower valve without opening a wall when it started leaking right after we remodeled that bath--and that was the only thing I didn't touch in that room.
 
I have a 15 year old double wide set on permanent foundation... everything is great except the plumbing... in 4 1/2 years living here, I think I've spent 6 months under the house fixing pipes... I'm slowly but surely replacing all of the joints under the house with the Shark bite fittings... at the price of them, before long the plumbing will be worth more than the house.

Chuck, you probably have that polybutylene pipe. There's at least 1 class action suit about that stuff.
 
Copper/PEX transition?

Actually if I'm not mistaken, you can transition from copper to PEX or CPVC with a Shark Bite fitting. Copper goes in one side and PEX in the other. That's one nice thing about them. Normally I don't have a problem with sweat fittings but occasionally if they're in an area that's hard to get a torch to the Shark Bite are the way to go. Yes they cost more, but they save a LOT of time and headaches!

John
 
I hate plumbing. :(
Like others, simple jobs, or, at least, those which appear simple at the beginning, usually entail several trips to town and to the hardware store for the correct parts.
One of the first rules of life it: Never begin a home plumbing project on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. If you do, you will end up calling a professional plumber to fix the job, at double (or more) his usual rates.
 
Well it's good to see that I'm not the only one who feels that way about plumbing. :)

At the moment I'm just about ready to head out the door and give a guy a hand with the hubs on his boat trailer. He's a bit confused about how to do it so I told him I'd drop by and show him how. It shouldn't take long so if I get back soon enough, I may even tackle the new shower valve this afternoon. I know, I'm a glutton for punishment. :D This job though should be pretty easy. (Famous last words...)

Wish me luck.

John
 
Hmm, well I won't say I love plumbing, but I won't say I hate it. I actually kind of enjoy sweating copper fittings. Maybe it's a bit of the "arrrghh, me burn things with fire!" mentality.

never actually seen these sharkbite things.
 
For me, plumbing generates more bad words per minute than any other house hold DIY activity...

Man, you got that right!

One thing I do do, though, is take liberal advantage of the Borg's return policies. I try to look over the job at hand, then buy about three of everything that I think I'll need. Then, after the job, I return everything I didn't use. Saves a lot of time - and return trips - but even so, there's often something I've missed that'll require an extra trip or two.
 
I just got back from helping my buddy out with his trailer hubs. I made a stop at the BORG on the way home. I'm going to tackle the shower valve shortly. It should be a piece of cake. It turns out that the 1/2" female FIP copper fittings that I need to hook up to the valve (four needed) are like $2.37 each. But just above those on the shelf are the solderless Shark Bite fittings and they are only $4.67. It's WELL worth an extra couple bucks and change to use them. It should make the job SUBSTANTIALLY easier. I'm just going to shut the water off long enough to cut the supply lines to the shower and then sweat in two new 1/4 turn ball valves. The soldering in that area will be easy. Then I can turn the water back on and get the rest of the job done. With these solderless fittings, there's very little soldering to be done and the job will be finished. I'll report back on how it went.

John
 
I'm just going to shut the water off long enough to cut the supply lines to the shower and then sweat in two new 1/4 turn ball valves.

John

Ya know they make Sharkbite 1/4 turn ball valves too.:thumb::thumb:I have a pair of them for when I take a sink out. I put them on and turn the water back on . Then when my plumber hooks up the new sink he gives them back to me. Most of the time he just gives me 2 new ones and hooks up to my old ones.:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
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