Had this happen to my copper pipes, house was improperly grounded and thus grounded to hot water. Even after fixing the issue, years late pin holes would randomly appear due to the damage that had already occurred. So if you ever get one of these pin holes, save yourself the trouble and just swap the whole damn line. After 5 leaks we wen’t to pex. No voltage on pipes, anode wearing regular yet 8 years later a pinhole popped up so just said screw it these pipes are toast.
@@Cody_Lowen Excellent~Check your water heater anode inside tank probably needs replaced, also check you outside ground that goes to your electric meter I clean that copper cable every 5 years just sand it clean also your computer needs a good ground that ground rod goes in to earth about 5 feet. retired electrician
A crab boat on Deadliest Catch had a hydraulic leak in the middle of the Bering Sea. They shut it down, cleaned the outside of the pipe with brake cleaner, smeared epoxy on it, wrapped a piece of rubber from a buoy around it, then put a row of hose clamps over it. It held up through the rest of that crab season.
I’ve seen my dad do this on his V8 inboard boat. The coolant line needed it and we where not in a location to replace it immediately. That was a long time ago, thanks for bringing that back to my memory.
That's called a Mexican bandaid. Been using them for years. Works on copper very well and you don't need to shut the water off. If you don't have hose a piece of rubber from a toilet flapper works just as well.
I had a trim carpenter shoot a nail into a water line. Saw drips on the ceiling of the kitchen. House was three months old. Builder didn’t want to fix, said the drip stains were from cooking bit they weren’t anywhere near the stove or sink. Two holes cut into the ceiling and two holes cut into the bathroom wall to find the leak. What a mess.
The pipes were tooclose to the face of the floor and the trim carpenter used too long of nails. Should have takenmpics and sent them to him for proof and demand he make it right.
@@rondickinson1907 or the trim guy could have nailed the trim into the wall. Who nails trim into the floor? Also, it would be cheaper for the contractor to fix it, than get taken to court, and getting bad publicity.
Because galvanized pipe over Time breakdowns inside the fittings and restricts the flow of water going into the water heater. Brass is a different type of metal that does not breakdown over time
In the Navy they taught us a similar technique for repairs on pipes mainly on 150 psi fire main. Had the special clamps for repairs one active and the old school method to temporarily repair pipes.
There's a piece of pipe on my ship with just about every possible pipe repair on it. Belzona, band-it clamps, banjo clamps, hell we even have tarred marline on that damn thing. Still holds. It'll be replaced eventually. When all the pipe around it also rots out. It's a greywater drain, so apparently not critical.
Yea i was thinking that if a galvanized pipe springs a pin hole leak on its own, the inside of that pipe is probably in pretty bad shape. The tension from the hose clamp might crush it. I've seen 3/4' galvanized that looked good on the outside, but was so badly corroded inside the flow was down to 1/4" and you could break the pipe over your knee. If you know the pipe is not very old, maybe. But if you're working on an 80 year old house, you might be in some trouble.
@@oldsguy354 I had that happen to me at a neighbor's house. Tightening the clamp and the pipe collapsed completely. Ended up having to replace the whole thing in the middle of the winter in Michigan. Outside
@@gregoryk.9815 But you would have had to replace it anyway so trying this method only cost you a little time, had it worked as it does most of the time you could have done the proper fix at a more convenient time.
@@phillhuddleston9445 you missed the point… he went to help a neighbor and busted the pipe. Outside. In Winter. That went from a two minute field dressing, to a wet trip to the hardware store.
If it is rusted to the point where the pipe has deteriorated this much where a small pinhole leak is forming, it's literally just the beginning. Looking inside that pipe there's a paper thin wall around that pinhole leak. If you are short of time do this, but if you want it to not leak ever again, replace the pipe.
I work out in the oil fields and we make massive patches like this all the time! But on massive 30" lines. 1/2" rubber, old cut piece of same size pipe, and a few 1-1/2 ton come alongs to clamp it on. Works great!
Totally. I’m ready to do a video testing some of the options I got in the comments. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! 2023 is going to be a good year!
i was working on a 2014 camper today . never serviced his roof . the front cap unsealed and water ran into the front for x amount of time . way long enough to do major damage . and also I hooked it up to water to test the water system and it immediately flooded out the toilet the water pump and further inspection I found the compartments under the drawers and sinks were all soft and rotted where water was running everything they used their water system . water leaks are no joke at all and must be taken seriously if you want to have your house to last
The fun part is the old houses I have demo'ed that had like 20 or more of these fixes at various times. You can almost see a progression in clamp technology on some jobs!
in an emergency, you can sharpen a number 2 pencil, shove the tip in the hole as far as possible, and then break it off. The graphite swells, helping seal the leak temporarily. You as an added measure wrap with a piece of plastic or rubber and a clamp.
Used to do Repair like this in a race car had a Chevy Vega order for 55 motor and we used to pressurize the fuel to about 45 pounds maybe 55 pounds per square inch with a little hand pump off the line and every now and then we get a bit of a leak, but we didn’t do anything extraordinary. We did nothing. Safe wore a bicycle helmet. The first time I went down to track.
I worked warranty for a large home builder. Lady called and asked why the floor in her one year old homes entrance was warm to touch. I was puzzled and went over to look. Turned out, area was beside garage which had the waterheater. During construction, whoever put the toe molding down shot a trim nail through a hot water pipe which made a hole, but sealed it until it rusted away in a year ,caused a pin hole leak ,but because molding was caulked water just went under vinyl flooring and into ground. Very weird.
Wow. That is a weird one. I did warranty work for a few builders for a couple years. I was always finding cool surprises left by the new construction piece workers.
thanks for the tip. In the past two years, I had 3 pin hole leaks in copper piping. I never experienced that issue before and I have owned 14 houses of all ages!
@@ThatFixItGuy I checked that out. I did find one copper strapping was fastened with drywall screws. I just removed the drywall screws and replaced them with copper nails. Thanks for the tip.
I had to come back and thank you ,I went and bought 2different types of flex tape and the pressure water went right through after 40seconds I was so frustrated I looked on RU-vid and finally found this video and had a hose and clam tried this and so far so good thank you so very much
We did that when I worked for a small city in NC about 2004 to 2006. We had to come back the next year. When we started to do repairs right they stayed fixed.
As a handiman I have also done this repair. I once used electrical tape instead of a rubber hose l didnt have. Just pulled off a strip and folded it over forming a square pad. What causes these pin holes? We live in an area that has acidic water and that eventually eats through metal pipe causing pin holes. I usually advise to replace all the metal pipe to plastic. Pvc or cpvc depending on location. Pex is nice but l have repaired too much of it to recommend it. Thank you.
Pinhole comes from improper grounding of the plumbing system there is a phenomenon that takes place called electrolysis it gets one element working against the other and it's done electrically
While working in Cherry Hill NJ we had at least a dozen pin hole leak's in 3" copper pipe that was only ten years old. I asked several times to send out water samples to see if this water was okay to drink but cheap skate company refused. We would cut strips if gasket material then install hose clamps to stop leaks
Hey so fun fact. Take a pencil and sharpen the tip, then put it right over the pin hole and whack it in . I thought this wouldn't work but have been shown and practiced this method and it works. Give it a try ! Only works on galvanized fittings or pipe
As a plumber I know we would not do this. They make an actual clamp that is solid metal and wraps completely around the hole piece of pipe and is bolted together. Now I guess you could try to use a fern coat or a band for maybe a temporary solution. While you ran to parts store or till they can have a shutdown. But I would still go with the clamp that is made for just that situation!
As a plumber I use a pipe clamp that is designed for that, if it's during normal hrs I replace the issue if I show up why not take care of the problem then
I have fixed those before with a number two pencil sharpened up and just break off the lead in there and basically wrapped the same thing around it, The pipe that I fixed with that has lasted 9.25 years now
I'm a water and sewer operator and this is a method we use that we call jerry rigging. Temporary fix that's very effective until the pex or copper line gets swapped out.
You realize he's doing this just as a get by til it can be fixed correctly right? Can't just stop the jobs you already committed to please someone else... instead run over and get the issue resolved so they can continue to use the water and there's no leak. Then when it's their turn it can be fixed properly ...
These pin hole leaks typically stem from a hard water problem or calcium buildup. Invest in an hard water solution like ‘scale blaster’ I have been using it for years now and it works plus it removes the scale you already have in the pipes!
I've even seen metal sleeve clamps with a rubber gasket premade for industrial use. A good temporary fix that usually lasts at least as long as it needs too.
You'd be surprised how effective this is, i've worked on a very old cargo ship and we were underway and we cannot isolate the steam since all the steam valves are literally not keeping the only option was to close the main steam valve but that is impossible since the ship is running and using the exhaust to create steam. This Hose clamp / Rubber hose sealed that leaking steam line real good until i went home LOL
I’ve done this when I didn’t have any pipe clamps in the truck, still do it. I don’t even turn the water off now unless the pipe is just falling apart. Then at that point, I just replace the whole run.
Good in a quick pinch, also with old copper piping that's _really_ prone to that sort of leakage (look for green corroded spots). If you don't have rubber or hose clamps handy they also sell little bolt-up leak seal clamps at most hardware or big box home improvement joints for just a few bucks.
BP Texas City used a similar device setup on hydrocarbon lines as big as 24" in diameter. One of the worst I saw was a 12" underground naphtha line that had five band clamps over a 12' section. We had dug it up to find a leak and ended up adding a sixth. I don't know if that line was ever replaced but I sure hope so since it was over 15 years ago. Knowing the history and operators of that refinery I can't be sure though.
In 99’ I was working on a construction site and one of the gcs brought up a conversation. He said that one of the major colleges in California had done a study that had determined that tradesmen would be making well over $20 an hour at the turn of the century. Which of course is nothing now. But it said a lot back then. Because within months things were done to keep the wages down. So here we are now and tradesmen are making great money, but hardly any young people are going into the trades. It just makes me wonder why plumbing techniques are so readily shared over RU-vid recently.
the transmission radiator for my wife's ranger has a hole, it had come loose and was chafing on the inner frame to make the hole, we did exactly this and re-secured the hose lines, it has been running for 5 years like this with no leaks.
Lol my basement has tons of these fixes in my home and they work flawlessles they hold up well i have some that have had these 'temporary repair' for over 7 years. I dont even shut the water off.
i did the same thing to my power steering line but with heat shrink tubing as the gasket. had to retighten it a few times once it settled but no more leak so far.
Ever hear of term electrolysis, in plumbers term it means you have somewhere within the system you have copper pipe connected directly to galvanized pipe , this causes corrosion in galvanized pipe, to stop this that union must be changed to what's called a dielectric union this will stop the corrosion. While changing the union change out the damaged pipe , that's a permanent fix.it will cure future problems in the pipe
Hi from Southern California. I had a pinhole leak in the hot water pipe to my downstairs bathroom. Unfortunately the pipe was directly below my dining room floor and my home is on a slab. My advice? Never buy a home built on a slab. Always have a crawlspace.
Piece of lead or steel wool your golden! I'm a Fire Protection Sprinkler Fitter for 20yrs ours stay live while we ping it they make collars for this application in our field as well just called a Temp Jacket.
I know its illegal but honestly the way I personally fix this is by mega-pressing on two galvanized female adapters then threading on a pro-press brass male adapter and a running copper line. I am aware that this is an illegal connection and I always clarify that to the customer as well as the fact that it’s only a temporary fix
1/4 inch drill tip screw with piece of rubber, works on cast steam pipe, or copper. But holes come from rot. I have seen 2 inch steam heat pipes with 10 screw patches. At some point you have to replace the pipe.
