Guy Merritt
New Member
I'm a complete amateur when it comes to plumbing but I've had pretty good luck, generally, with most home repairs. Last night I was replacing an ancient, corroded gate valve with a ball valve. I was low on pipe, didn't wanna run to the store, and I didn't push my pipe all the way into the ball valve - so I got a slight angle on the pipe and a bind in the fitting where it meets some old pipe. The pipe is pushed way into the coupling, on both ends, and (obviously) there's plenty off solder. Anyway: I've never sweat pipes and had them come apart, later. This doesn't leak, a bit, and I know it's messy as hell (I didn't even wipe the pipes off) - but is this something that absolutely should be corrected or will it hold - pretty much - forever? My wife is, like, "just leave it alone - how can it come apart....?". On the other hand, she knows a lot less than me - and that's bad. This is ugly, but I've got a LOT to fix in this house....... If it's just ugly, we can live with it... If there's a real danger that it could ever come apart, I'll just fix it. Personally, I don't think it can come apart just because it has this slight bind. But I'd rather get an opinion from someone who knows more than me (which is just about everybody - except, maybe, my wife).
Last edited: