Jarniscipus
Member
So I re-piped (copper) a lot of my house over the weekend, including lines to 4 outside hose bibs and the irrigation system outside...everything works as expected inside the house, but I have not tested my exterior valves/pipes/irrigation for fear of running any water outside of the house. I want to get an inspection and close up the walls, but obviously I want to make sure my plumbing works by turning on the water and making sure there are no leaks. Here is my concern...it is cold outside and I really don't want to risk running water into the pipes going outside and freezing them (I already blew everything out in the fall)...if I put 125PSI of compressed air on my copper plumbing job and it held for an hour, would you call it good for water pressure in the spring? Also I would be leaving flux inside the copper pipes for the winter...would this be a bad idea to let the flux sit in there for months? Or should I just go for it with the water test and hope the pipes don't freeze - it's 17 outside, they may not freeze, I don't know, but i don't want to find out. The biggest problem is any water I run outside to test the repipe job may not freeze the pipes instantly, but it is going to put water in my yard when I drain the pipes and then the ice monster is going to come out. This may sound like no big deal, but it is very possible that any standing water outside could remain ice until April and I really hate ice - we had a freezing rain this weekend and I had 1-3" of solid ice on the ground from shop to the house, it made me so crazy getting to my shop that I grabbed my rotary hammer and chipped a path back to the house - a new use I discovered for rotary hammers that works amazing well, and is very rewarding. So does anyone think compressed air is a good idea to test my plumbing job or do I need to actually run the water? If anyone thinks it will work, I plan on requesting an inspection with compressed air...who knows if that will fly.
