Mobile Home Laundry Room Hissing!

[Soquilii]

You should have asked what they use for water piping in the new homes. They probably didn't know.

I DID. I did everything but draw them a picture. I simply got the wrong department and sought the manufacturer, and STILL got callbacks from sales.

 

[Soquilii]

Guess what. The patch I applied held for 8 MONTHS. Not bad for a beginner. Our problem was mice chewing the pipe. I called in an 'expert' - Zephyrus Reno & Repair in the Baytown area - and he replaced the pipe with a new length and TAPED IT. This is a high pressure water line, people. He says he put a temporary patch on it until I could afford a licensed plumber (he didn't tell ME that) and it was truly temporary - it lasted 20 minutes until Old Faithful broke loose. Took me an hour to mop up.
LONG STORY SHORT: I'm very leery now of fly-by-nighters and am doing without running water until I can afford a licensed plumber. Any women on here, please learn from my mistakes.

That being said - I need opinions, please, on Quest Couplings (see picture) for a 1/2" Pex PVC pipe. How highly are they recommended? One guy I talked to wants to use a METAL coupling on a plastic pipe. Which is best?

 

[Jeff Handy]

I am usually one to favor a quick and dirty fix, if I think it is worth a try and harmless.

But in this case, I would not approve of what you did there.

Too much potential for major damage if/when that patch starts to leak again.

It looks like you might already have some mold starting to grow on the wall behind the pipes, no need to feed it moisture so it takes over the whole area.

You should really scrounge up some money to have a plumber or handyman cut out the old pipe where it failed, and splice it with something solid.

As mentioned above, it pbly is polybutylene.
That was a technology that failed, and many trailers and RV’s have needed to be entirely re-plumbed, because one leak usually is the first of many more elsewhere.

As wood4d stated in reply #18, you can get an adapter to transition from that pipe to a length of pex.
That PBP is pretty stiff when it gets old, and it already is suspect as far as strength, so I would suggest a way to repair it with very low stress to the old pipe.

You can cut out about a foot and a half of the old pipe, then splice in a long piece of pex that is carefully formed into a loop.

That way, you don’t have to wrestle with the old pipe, trying to get a straight piece of pex in between the cut ends of the old pipe.
But pex is pretty flexy, maybe with a long enough piece a loop might not be needed.
Just an idea.

Maybe your church or county has a free or discounted repair service listing for seniors, I bet they do.

At the very least, turn off the shutoff valves when you are not washing clothes, as was suggested.

 

[Soquilii]

Thanks so much for your reply! I learned a lot. As luck would have it, a family member chipped in and I got the line repaired today.
I know one thing. Running water is a luxury.
Thanks again!

 

[Jeff Handy]

I would invest in a bunch of good mouse traps also.
Use a dab of peanut butter as bait.

And little covered bait stations with mouse poison inside.
If you have pets, keep the stations out of the way, like under a vanity, behind the washer, anywhere a pet can’t get to it.
The stations are covered, but a pet could chew through the plastic eventually.

 

[Jeff Handy]

For future repairs!
Because you will have more leaks someday, from pipe failure or mouse chewing.

You have to cut the pipe ends very straight across, and clean ends, no burrs.
Burrs can damage the o-rings that make the seal, and burrs or uneven cut ends can be hard to push into the fitting.
You can find many videos on Youtube.

A Sharkbite coupling to join polybutylene to pex or pvc.

1/2 in. Push-to-Connect Brass Polybutylene Conversion Coupling Fitting

https://www.homedepot.com/p/202270632