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I got a pinhole leak in the body of this copper tee fitting. I tried de-soldering the connections but there is no room to pull out the horizontal pipe and the vertical pipe is held fixed by a brace. Any suggestions?

immobile tee fitting

UPDATE 2023-06-20: I drilled the rivets out but it looks like the horse shoe shaped hanger may be soldered on or press-fitted to the coupling.

coupling and hanger

an phu
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    A word of warning, some years ago, I had a pinhole in one of my copper pipes, I fixed it. A few months later, a whole section (in front of the boiler) went into pinholes. So, replaced that. Then a whole section behind the wall went into pinholes, so replaced that length too. Luckily that was it. When I raised a ruckus at the plumbing supplies, they said they had one batch of pipe from China that did this. Supposedly, sometime they throw in iron filings into molten copper to make it go further. So, it might to pay to check it regularly once you have fixed it. – Rohit Gupta Jun 15 '23 at 12:18
  • What's behind the black fabric? It looks like you have plenty of room to work there. – isherwood Jun 15 '23 at 12:58
  • Where does the other leg of the tee go? Can't you drill the rivet out to get yourself some movement? Or is the angle created by the escutcheon too great (although it kinda looks like the valve in front of the escutcheon could be removed)? – Huesmann Jun 15 '23 at 15:43
  • Unsoldering sucks. But the attempt should be made to (preserve the length of stub coming out the wall) pull the tee off the stub that goes into the base of the tee by heating it, but that's only after you cut above and below. That hanger stays; use slip couplings. While you're at it, cut the elbow off too, and make that a tee with a water hammer on it, sticking up. – Mazura Jun 15 '23 at 21:10
  • @crip659, no I have not drained the pipe. The pipe is coming up from the foundation so I think cutting the pipe from the bottom is not an option. – an phu Jun 16 '23 at 06:25
  • @rohit, what type of copper did you use as a replacement. I chose Type M. – an phu Jun 16 '23 at 06:26
  • @isherwood, I got stucco behind the flame protector. There is 1/2 inch of clearance between the stucco and pipe. – an phu Jun 16 '23 at 06:29
  • @huesmann, the other leg of the tee go to a hose bibb. Yes, the escutcheon, compression fitting and angle stop are in the way. – an phu Jun 16 '23 at 06:32
  • @mazure, Water is coming up from the bottom pipe. The pipe from the wall goes out to a hose bibb. I thought de-soldering would be easy-peasy. But I ran into a host of unexpected problems; I do not have enough clearance to get leverage to push the hose-bibb pipe out and the facet pipe is locked in place. Also, I think crip659 is right; there is water in the pipe because I still still any movement in the pipes after seeing some solder melted down. I am trying to avoid cutting the pipes as much as possible. – an phu Jun 16 '23 at 06:53
  • @anphu if the other leg goes to a hose bib, if you replace the tee, aren't you gonna have to (re)move the hose bibb anyway, at least temporarily? How is the valve in your pic attached to the pipe at the escutcheon? – Huesmann Jun 16 '23 at 13:36
  • @huesmann, yes I would have to remove the entire hose bib and the attached pipe. There is only 1/2" between the vertical pipe and the stucco. Maybe I need someone to go outside and pull on the hose bibb after I de-solder that portion of the tee. The valve is attached by a compression fitting. I have already taken it out along with the ferrule and drilled out the rivets but still not enough room to detach the top portion of the tee. I guess I need to de-solder the elbow first. – an phu Jun 20 '23 at 12:10

1 Answers1

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Perhaps it won't be the last pin hole. I'd cut out an entire segment and replace it with PEX. I'd reconnect the new segment with PEX to copper compression fittings. Should the outgoing pipe need more mechanical stability, I'd include an wall mounted elbow

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Update:

In your comment you stated that you don't want to go the PEX route.

I suggested the PEX route because I don't particulary like the copper and solder route. I think that if one piece fails, the other ones will also fail soon.

However, this is also doable with copper. Perhaps it is even easier to to the availability of "slip couplings": Those are fittings that you can slide over the tubing and then solder. The idea is that you cut out an segment, slide the fittings over the remaining tube, insert the repaired or new segment, move the sliders over the cut and solder them in place.

Martin
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    I am not familiar enough about PEX. I was thinking of keeping the lines copper because of the unknown. I am not sure if this is relevant, but the pipe coming from the wall, goes out to a hose-bibb. Behind the flame protectant cloth, is stucco and to the right, is a stud. I got 1/2 inch of clearance between the pipe and the two surfaces. – an phu Jun 16 '23 at 07:00