The leak could have been worse or more expensive

[lago]

I went into the shop yesterday morning and before I even turned the light on, I heard the drip,drip,drip. I looked up and saw a wet spot in the corner about 3'x3'. WTH. This was pretty much right below the hot water heater.

I hotfooted upstairs and everything look OK there. Went back down, got my ladder and started pulling the sheetrock & insulation out to find the leak. Before I found it, I could tell it was on the hot water line since the soaked insulation was warm. I pulled the insulation off the pipe up to the subfloor and it appeared to be leaking from above. OH Crap.

The line went to a faucet in the powder room right above so I called a plumber. They checked it out and indicated that they would have to cut thru the sheetrock/wallpaper in the powder room. The wife was having a fit. I then remembererd that the other side of the wall was the hot water closet. They were able to find the leak from in there and that saved the wall paper.

Here is the weird part..the hot water lines were installed with a small low voltage pump pushing the water to each faucet. Each faucet had a small line going back to the main line. This allowed hot water within seconds of turning on the faucet anywhere in the house. For whateve reason, the small return line had a tee connector and about 12" of copper tubing that was capped off. The small piece had a small and I mean small pinhole that had a small stream of water shooting out. It was right by 2 small ripples in the tubing that looked like a defect in the tubing. A $150 later, I am leak free

Just need to get to BORG for some 5/8" sheetrock, screws, joint compound, and insulation and I should be back in business.

Just glad it leaked in a corner and not on top of any of my tools.

Ken

[pelligrini]

Glad it was fairly painless.
Your installation isn't all that weird, we specify it in a lot of our houses. It's normally called a recirculating system. It adds a little capacity to the hot water, but mainly its for the convenience of not waiting on the hot water.

[Russianwolf]

if memory serves that 12" capped section is to catch trapped air and prevent banging pipes.

[leehljp]

if memory serves that 12" capped section is to catch trapped air and prevent banging pipes.

This is what it sounds like to me too! Basically it's a trap! A GOOD feature, except that it leaked.

[Ed62]

Even though it wasn't too bad, it's still a PITA. Good thing it wasn't a lot worse. I agree about the trap.

Ed

[sparkeyjames]

I'd post the star war's Admiral Akbar picture but I see that everyone has already figured out that it's a trap.