Need advice - leaking pipe joints

I did some plumbing today. It did not end in success. I have drips at the elbow.

Oooo look! missing pipes.


This is everything back in place.


Will I need to cut out my poor elbow and replace it again, this time using more dope glue? Other suggestions?

Sometimes if you are lucky... adding more glue will seal it in place. (I'm never that lucky)
If not,  you will need two couplers, another 90, and some more straight pipe.
A professional pipe fitter(plumber) would carefully cut each pipe very straight.
Sand both pieces, then using a file, chamfer the leading edge of the straight pipes, and sand again.
Now you can use your primer and glue as normal.
Carefully twisting to seat the glued piece.

Short answer: yes, if you don't want it to leak. However I usually use the purple primer before I glue, it makes the PVC tacky and the glue will hold better. Paint the purple primer on the pipe, let it dry, then glue both the pipe and the fitting and push together. There may be some back pressure on the fitting as you push them together, hold them for a second. Let everything dry for 30 minutes or so before putting pressure back on.

Argh! Frustrating. Pipe is cheap, but T's and elbows are expensive.

PVC pipe has some flex to it. I see a lot of PVC pipe full of water, which is heavy, without any supports. Personally, I would look at adding support for the whole pipe tree.

Can you save the joint(s)? Tough call. If you add supports to the pipe tree, drain it, blow out moisture from the leaking joint, and put more dope around the leaking joint, you might get lucky. But no guarantees. My 2c.

Is the leak for sure at the elbow?  Or is it the valve threads?  Most likely failure point here is the valve threads.  You should NOT be using pipe dope on the elbow.  You should be using a light abrasive, primer(don't see any blue or purple) and finally the adhesive on both halves.

Assuming it is the elbow leaking you will need a straight coupler, an elbow, a threaded adapter and 2 short pieces of pipe.  Cut the vertical pipe about half way between Tee and the Elbow probably running slightly closer to the elbow in case you need to do the same thing again at a future date.  Unscrew the pipe and throw the horizontal pieces away and start over.  Most likely cause for failure is poor clean up to start with.  Second most likely cause for failure is not allowing enough curing time.  Third most likely cause for failure poorly applied cement.  If you apply it to both pieces making multiple revolutions with the brush and use a slight rotorary motion as you put it together the last is fully preventable.  An abrasive helps with clean up.(steel wool or fine sand paper.  Wet rag followed by dry rag can help too.  Now there is no sign of primer in these joints.  Most primer is red, blue or purple and stains the pipe mildly.  Its job is to start the pipe softening while removing any oils or grease residues.

Now the other thing not visible in the picture is teflong tape or teflon pipe dope/paste on the threaded connection.  If it was me it would have both.  Tape first on the fitting and then a layer of paste over the tape.

PS if you add a union to the threaded part it will be easier to take apart in the future.

Thomas approaches a good question.  Are you using a pipe cleaner / primer?

Wait, what? There is primer for PVC pipes?

This is what I started with.


That top T didn't go anywhere. Just a shut off valve. Maybe it did back ages ago... Guess what was leaking? That T. The handle of the shut off valve on the middle tried to break on me. It goes to the faucet on the outside of the house. I replaced it with a PVC valve. The old shut aff valve from the well does not work anymore. dunno why. Could that cause additional problems as I left it in place? Reasons. I did put a new brass one on though. I wanted strength there. Not so much strength needed to the faucet. Maybe. I guess I should take the old valve out since I gotta get back under there anyway? There is what might be a filter under there. That could come out too. Didn't wanna do that.

What I did... I cut out the bad portion. I dry fit all the pieces and lined it up where it would go. I crawled back under the house to make sure it would fit. It wound up being a couple inches taller than the original. I figured that would be okay.

I used only dope tape on the brass shut off valve to the PVC joinery and the metal bit toward the well. I took each connector apart one at a time and painted on the pipe glue, pressed them back together. The elbow was last. I thought, was that enough glue on that one? Pffft!

C wrote:Assuming it is the elbow leaking you will need a straight coupler, an elbow, a threaded adapter and 2 short pieces of pipe.

As There is an amount of play in the pipe set up, I can't just cut out the elbow and put in a new one?

C wrote:PS if you add a union to the threaded part it will be easier to take apart in the future.

I do not understand what you mean.

Not all cleaner has dye in it, and not all pvc pipe glue requires cleaner.

A good way to cut pvc/cpvc pipe is to use a rotary cutter like you use for copper pipe. It leaves a very clean cut if it has a sharp wheel, and slightly tapers and chamfers the end. I second that the chamfer is important. The way I envision it, a sharp corner on the end of the pipe can act like a squeegee and simply squeegee away the glue as it is pressed in. A chamfered edge squeezes glue in between the fitting and pipe where it needs to be.

Yup. This stuff recommends primer. Sigh.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Wait, what? There is primer for PVC pipes?

This is what I started with.


That top T didn't go anywhere. Just a shut off valve. Maybe it did back ages ago... Guess what was leaking? That T. The handle of the shut off valve on the middle tried to break on me. It goes to the faucet on the outside of the house. I replaced it with a PVC valve. The old shut aff valve from the well does not work anymore. dunno why. Could that cause additional problems as I left it in place? Reasons. I did put a new brass one on though. I wanted strength there. Not so much strength needed to the faucet. Maybe. I guess I should take the old valve out since I gotta get back under there anyway? There is what might be a filter under there. That could come out too. Didn't wanna do that.

What I did... I cut out the bad portion. I dry fit all the pieces and lined it up where it would go. I crawled back under the house to make sure it would fit. It wound up being a couple inches taller than the original. I figured that would be okay.

I used only dope tape on the brass shut off valve to the PVC joinery and the metal bit toward the well. I took each connector apart one at a time and painted on the pipe glue, pressed them back together. The elbow was last. I thought, was that enough glue on that one? Pffft!

C wrote:Assuming it is the elbow leaking you will need a straight coupler, an elbow, a threaded adapter and 2 short pieces of pipe.

As There is an amount of play in the pipe set up, I can't just cut out the elbow and put in a new one?

C wrote:PS if you add a union to the threaded part it will be easier to take apart in the future.

I do not understand what you mean.

While you may have enough flex to do without replacing the bunch of pieces odds are you are leaving the pipe under stress and this can lead to future failures(both short term and long term).  I am a tight wad and I yet would replace the stated pieces for future trouble prevention by removing as much stress as possible.

primer discussion  There are dozens of brands of primer.

Here is a pvc union

pvc union

Here is a galvanized steel union
Union

Their purpose is to allow middle of the run disassembly without unthreading the pipe or cutting the pipe.  They also allow very slight misalignment adjustments.