New Spicket, New Trouble

So, yesterday my parents came over to help move our existing dripping water spicket to a new location and switch it out for one that wouldn't freeze and leak in the future. While my Dad prepared the new spicket, I worked on removing the existing one. It wasn't fun. I had to stand on the toilet and counter of our downstairs bathroom and use a not so great pipe cutter as the space was too small for a better one. It took a while for the pipe to finally cut. Once removed, I caulked the hole in the wall and went to assist my Dad in turning off the water to the house and soldering the spicket line to the pipe that would supply the water. Once everything was together, we slowly turned the water on only to find the joint from the spicket to the pipe was leaking. So we used the new shutoff valve and shut water off to the spicket so it wouldn't leak. They went to the store for a union so we could redo the leaking joint without undoing the soldered joints since they gave us great difficulty. (Cold water and solder do not get along.)

At approximately 6:25 this morning he texted me, asking if I had remembered to turn on the shutoff on the hot water heater. You see, the water supply to the heater is the line we tapped into for the spicket, and in an effort to stop drawing water to the joint we were trying to solder because simply raising the pipe so the water would have to go up a hill was not working, we turned off the shutoff valve at the hot water heater. I hadn't so, since the doggy alarm had just gone off and I was already waking up somewhat, I went downstairs to turn the shutoff on. I immediately got a steady drip of water from the joint at the shutoff. I tried turning it back off to stop the drip except, go figure, it became a stream. So I turned the shutoff back on and found a bucket to catch the water. I texted my Dad letting him know what happened.

He tried talking me through trying to stop the leak, which was to turn the nut on the shutoff, and I couldn't get it to budge. So on their way over to fix the joint for the spicket they stopped at the store and got a new shutoff for the water heater. He tried turning the nut just to see if he could get it to budge, and it wouldn't budge for him either. At least not enough to stop the leak.

So, trying to un-join the valve from the pipes so we could slip in the new shutoff did not work. We were again drawing water to the heat and creating nothing but steam. We were forced to cut the pipe. Off to the store my Dad ran, while I held a bucket under the pipe freely dripping. We had tried to balance it on the pipe  from the heater but found it unstable while getting those first drops in it and it fell. So I held it for a while before it got itself settled, and I snapped a picture because I had nothing better to do.

Long story cut short, we got the shutoff for the hot water heater installed and the union installed on the line for the spicket. Turned all the water back on only to find, surprise, one of the other joints for the spicket was now leaking. We again turned the water off, undid the joint (thank goodness it was a threaded joint so the pipes screwed into each other instead of a soldered joint), took off the teflon tape, put new on, reattached everything, and found no leaks.

Picking up his things my Dad got dripped on. Looking up, there is an old joint, probably original that at one time leaked. We can tell this because of the discoloration on the pipe. But it had apparently sealed itself. With all out turning water off and on we dislodged the seal. We said screw this because it isn't a serious drip. Took us like a minute to figure out where the water had come from. We put a bucket under the joint to catch the drips but the bucket even now, barely shows any evidence of a drip. So, the leak continues and we are hoping it will seal itself again because we really don't want to have to try soldering another pipe with water in it.