The day I realized I was tightening plumbing fittings way too much

Took a call about a leaky shower valve in a house off Candelaria last week, and the owner said he'd cranked it down with a pipe wrench. Turns out I'd been doing the same thing for years - hand tight plus a quarter turn is all you need, overthinking it just cracks the brass fittings. Anyone else learn that the hard way?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_price1d ago

My buddy Carl tried to use a pipe wrench on a kitchen faucet supply line back in '17 and split the nut right down the middle. Water shot up like a geyser, soaked his new vinyl plank floor, and he spent the next two hours drying it with a shop vac and cussing. He still brings it up every time we grab a beer, swears he'll never touch brass without a crescent wrench set to the right size again. I got a laugh out of it but secretly checked my own toolbox that night, found three fittings I'd over-cranked myself. Hand tight plus a quarter turn really is the golden rule, anything past that and you're just asking for trouble.

richardk262d ago

Wait, a pipe wrench on a shower valve? That's insane. You don't use a pipe wrench on brass fittings unless you want to turn them into confetti. I learned that one the hard way on a bathroom reno - snapped a fitting clean in half and had water spraying everywhere. Had to replace the whole valve body because I gorilla-torqued it.