{"id":1871,"date":"2020-04-29T20:32:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T03:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2020-04-29T20:41:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T03:41:04","slug":"dont-use-push-to-connect-sharkbite-style-fittings-on-high-temperature-hydronic-heating-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/dont-use-push-to-connect-sharkbite-style-fittings-on-high-temperature-hydronic-heating-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t use push-to-connect (“sharkbite-style”) fittings on high-temperature hydronic heating systems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had a bad experience with push-to-connect pipe fittings between my hot water heater and my hydronic heating system and wanted to share with you what happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday morning at 4:19 am I was fast asleep. But then I jolted awake as the bedroom lights flashed on and a slightly robotic voice proclaimed: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“FLOOD ALERT! FLOOD ALERT. IN THE GARAGE! FLOOD!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

“Huh!”, I thought. “I wonder why that thing is going off?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

So I staggered down to the garage on the first level. On the way I could hear a lot of water moving, so I got to thinking this was not a false alarm. Upon opening the door, there was steam and water just rushing out near the hot water heater. It has just begun, and the puddle was rapidly moving across the floor and soon covered most of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got the water valve turned off relatively quickly without scalding my bare-ass feet too much. Taking a look at what happened, here’s what I saw:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
This push-to-connect connector literally just popped off this copper pipe in the middle of the night<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As the sun rose, I got to researching these fittings. This is an off-brand version (Proline) of something commonly called a sharkbite connector. It has little teeth in it that are supposed to grab the copper pipe and hold on. Let’s take a look at those teeth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The teeth in my connector had totally corroded away and released their grip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look at that! The teeth are there but a huge fraction of them have totally just corroded away! After they were gone, the connector literally just slipped off the pipe and shot water out. Yikes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, that o-ring in there is supposed to keep water away from the teeth. But clearly, it did not. So I think what happened here is that the o-ring failed, released water into the teeth, and then the teeth corroded and failed, and then my garage and 1st floor started filling up rapidly with scalding hot water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank goodness I had a traumatic house flood as a child and as a result had installed a little flood sensor. That $38 or whatever saved thousands of dollars of water damage and a huge repair project. Nice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n