"Sharkbites fail"

[FS7]

I was in my office gym yesterday and I heard the building manager talking with a plumber. As it turns out, the copper piping behind the women's showers had developed a pinhole leak, causing a leak to come out from the maintenance closet (as well as a loss of water pressure in the shower).

The plumber looked at it and suggested a Sharkbite, and the building manager said "no Sharkbites in this building, everybody knows they fail." 

I suppose it was lost on him that the reason he is speaking to the plumber in the first place is that the copper failed. Everything fails eventually.

[EricU]

I feel more confident in a sharkbite than a copper sweated joint in an awkward place.  The repair fittings are great.

We use press to connect fittings for air at work, no problems ever. Much better than compression fittings.

[JosephP]

I was in my office gym yesterday and I heard the building manager talking with a plumber. As it turns out, the copper piping behind the women's showers had developed a pinhole leak, causing a leak to come out from the maintenance closet (as well as a loss of water pressure in the shower).

The plumber looked at it and suggested a Sharkbite, and the building manager said "no Sharkbites in this building, everybody knows they fail." 

I suppose it was lost on him that the reason he is speaking to the plumber in the first place is that the copper failed. Everything fails eventually.

   Yeah...sweated joints will NEVER fail!

[cwarner]

Not long after we moved into our current house my wife went to fill a pot at the sink to cook dinner.  When she turned the faucet on all she heard was a loud "THUD" and no water.  She opens the base cabinet and the cold supply pipe had a shark bite fitting that had blown off the copper pipe.  Had to run to the basement to shut off the water main as the shut off at the sink was located between the shark bite and the sink!  That was when I noticed the hot side had the same arrangement.  I went straight to Lowe's and got shut off valves with compression fittings and no issues since.  I don't trust shark bite.  I might be persuaded on plastic pipe where it can bite easier, but not copper.

[pprobus]

Not long after we moved into our current house my wife went to fill a pot at the sink to cook dinner.  When she turned the faucet on all she heard was a loud "THUD" and no water.  She opens the base cabinet and the cold supply pipe had a shark bite fitting that had blown off the copper pipe.  Had to run to the basement to shut off the water main as the shut off at the sink was located between the shark bite and the sink!  That was when I noticed the hot side had the same arrangement.  I went straight to Lowe's and got shut off valves with compression fittings and no issues since.  I don't trust shark bite.  I might be persuaded on plastic pipe where it can bite easier, but not copper.

I would say that that was most likely caused by someone not inserting the SB fitting completely on the pipe (not sure if your house was brand new or had a PO, so it was either the PO who did not push the connection on all the way and it finally came off or the plumber during the construction failed to push the fitting on completely).  I have had that happen myself, not the fitting's fault, its my own.  The only true failure I have had with a SB fitting is that I did not clean off the outside burr on a copper pipe and it nicked the O-ring inside the fitting and the fitting leaked.  Had to get a new fitting and made sure I cleaned the burr off of the outside of the pipe and it has held ever since.  That was an early failure, again, my fault, now I make sure that the OD burr is cleaned as well as the ID burr, its something I did not have to worry about with sweating copper pipe but a simple, quick, change in process and things have been good every since.  I am sold on SB fittings, now for new piping, I am switching over to PEX, and the SB fittings make it easy to connect copper to PEX.  I'm even "testing" them in my shop for compressed air and you can bet your you know what that I made sure I pushed each and every fitting on completely, but then I used PEX piping, not copper.

[daddo]

I would say that that was most likely caused by someone not inserting the SB fitting completely on the pipe (not sure if your house was brand new or had a PO, so it was either the PO who did not push the connection on all the way and it finally came off or the plumber during the construction failed to push the fitting on completely).  I have had that happen myself, not the fitting's fault, its my own.  The only true failure I have had with a SB fitting is that I did not clean off the outside burr on a copper pipe and it nicked the O-ring inside the fitting and the fitting leaked.  Had to get a new fitting and made sure I cleaned the burr off of the outside of the pipe and it has held ever since.  That was an early failure, again, my fault, now I make sure that the OD burr is cleaned as well as the ID burr, its something I did not have to worry about with sweating copper pipe but a simple, quick, change in process and things have been good every since.  I am sold on SB fittings, now for new piping, I am switching over to PEX, and the SB fittings make it easy to connect copper to PEX.  I'm even "testing" them in my shop for compressed air and you can bet your you know what that I made sure I pushed each and every fitting on completely, but then I used PEX piping, not copper.

 Be careful, air compresses, where water (liquid) relatively doesn't. The damage and force from compressed air is much more dangerous than with liquid.

[pprobus]

 Be careful, air compresses, where water (liquid) relatively doesn't. The damage and force from compressed air is much more dangerous than with liquid.

I agree, that's why they are used either in corners (90's, I ran a loop at the top plate level and plumbed down to drops along the walls)  or have pipe supports on both sides of each fitting (close to each fitting) (and actually each 90 used in the corners also has pipe supports close to both sides).  I figure if they let go with the compressed air, it will only happen on one side so they should not become projectiles if at least one side has support.

[Robert Adams]

 Be careful, air compresses, where water (liquid) relatively doesn't. The damage and force from compressed air is much more dangerous than with liquid.

That's backwards. Liquids under pressure are much more dangerous than gasses. Much more mass involved with liquids than gasses. Think pressure washer, water jet cutter. Gasses don't have the energy that liquids do. Also a break in a 100 psi line of air or a hydraulic line that hydraulic line is allot more dangerous than air is.

[Woodworm!]

sharkbites are a temporary fitting IMHO

[EricU]

it's not always easy to install a sharkbite properly.  That's why they want you to mark the pipe and all the prep work has to be done. I'm guilty of not always doing that. I suppose that's the danger of naive installers using them, because it looks so easy that they don't read the instructions. I'm going to go ahead and assert that a plumber would do it correctly most of the time, at least the plumbers we have hired would have. They don't like callbacks.