My method for repairing a leak in poly pipe

[Frank S]

Our well is about 500 feet from my water tower where our potable water is stored. Currently the well is only used for irrigating the garden I have a 3000-gallon storage tank elevated on a tower by the well water is pumped into it then a pressure pump sends it to the garden. Eventually I will complete an adequate filtration and recirculating system to remove enough of the minerals and gypsum making the water potable enough to be stored in our house water system.
Thats the background of the well.

The 1" poly pipe is preexisting to our living here and there are a few connections in the length I don't know if they had to buy the pipe in 100-to-150-foot coils or if it has broken from time to time. I suspect maybe gophers or the former. Anyway, this summer the pipe developed a leak and I lost 1000s of gallons of water. before the evidence of the leak was known.

I dug up the pipe to find a section that had 3 splices, in 2 feet this is what 1 of the splices looked like and the source of the leak.
the pipe had split this indicated to me that the splice inside was installed when the pipe was cold weakening it and it may have been fine and apparently was for many years but when I pressed the well back into service this summer my delivery pressure caused the pipe to split.

To repair the leak, I cut out the section with the splices and made 2 new splices Like this
I used a heat gun to slightly soften the pipe inserted the splice and instead of using a hose clamp I captured the splice with a compression splice fitting normally used on steel pipe.



Properly tightened the compression fitting does a much better job of securing the splice than a hose clamp

I then wrapped the splice connection in waterproof 10 mil 2" wide vinyl pipe wrap tape to protect the steel fitting from moisture in the dirt

Completed repair waiting for the next break to show up. Hopefully many years from now

[mwmkravchenko]

Looks like a solid repair. Hoping the rest of the pipe is up to the pressure Frank.

[nova_robotics]

How did you find the leak?

[Frank S]

Looks like a solid repair. Hoping the rest of the pipe is up to the pressure Frank.

This repair is about 150 feet from where the pipe had as a frost bite hydrant sticking out of the ground it is the second such repair, I've made on the pipe the other one is about 150 feet from this one, the well is about the same distance from that one, so I am making a guess that these splices were originally where lengths of the pipe was connected. Once a connection fails the only solution is to section it out and add a short length. which appears to be what was done, probably not suspecting that hose clamps were not the best holding devices or not realizing the Charteristics of plastic pipe when stretched cold?

[Frank S]

How did you find the leak?

when sandy loam gets wet enough to show up above ground I just started digging in the middle of the wet area. It helped that the 45 PSI stream was aimed up too.

[hemmjo]

Oh how I hate repairing leaky buried pipe!!! ALWAYS such a mess.

[Frank S]

Oh how I hate repairing leaky buried pipe!!! ALWAYS such a mess.

after I dug down and found the leak, I just let it dry out then finished digging a hole large enough to do the repair.

What I hate is any septic tank or associated work related to it. I think that stuff could dry out for 100 years and still be bad.

[Jon]

Congratulations Frank S - your poly pipe leak repair method is the Tool Tip of the Month for September 2023!

This is a much more durable repair than hose clamps, and well worth it to not have to dig up the pipe again.

Some more nice tool tips from September:

C-Spanner Holesaw Plug Extractor by Philip Davies
Coiled Air Hose Hanger by BuffaloJohn
Use for Discarded Rules by Philip Davies
Magnets in Jigs by Make Things
Magnetic Bench Appliance by Make Things
Vacuum Sealer Heat Sealing Method by rgsparber
Bandsaw Jig Made for the Lathe by Make Things


Frank S - we've added your Tool Tip to our All Tool Tips of the Month winners post. And, you'll now notice the tool tip award in the awards showcase in your postbit, visible beneath your username:



And, you'll be receiving a $100 cash prize, in your choice of Amazon, PayPal, or bitcoin. Please PM me your current email address and prize choice and I'll get it sent over right away.

Congrats again

[tonyfoale]

Here we have plastic hose connectors. They consist of a centre section and two screw on caps. The screw on caps have an internal taper which clamps down on a split tapered spacer. An O-ring is fitted over the pipe with a 5 or 6 mm backup ring/spacer. The ends of the hose spigot into the centre section then when the caps are screwed on the tapered pieces force the spacer against the O-ring to seal and then further tightening forces the split tapered spacer onto the hose to give a good grip to prevent the pipes pulling out. The inner diameter of the tapered spacer is grooved to bite into the hose. Everything is plastic and so you can bury it for 1000 years. I can take photos if anyone is interested enough.