That afternoon I spent 3 hours fixing a single leak under the kitchen sink

I kept tightening the same compression nut over and over last month until my neighbor walked over and said I was cross-threading it. Has anyone else spent way too long on a simple fix because you refused to back up and look at it fresh?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice_wilson735d ago

Did you actually check if the pipe was straight before you started cranking on that nut? I found out the hard way that sometimes the issue isn't the fitting itself but the whole pipe joint being slightly bent or out of alignment from years of weight and settling. You can tighten a compression nut till your arms give out and it'll still leak if the copper tubing isn't sitting flush inside. I had to cut a small section of pipe out and couple in a new straight piece before my leak finally stopped. Might be worth looking at the bigger picture of how the pipes are hung and supported under there.

leo_mason5d ago

That tunnel vision is real. People do it with almost everything not just plumbing. You get stubborn and think more force or more time will fix it when really you need to step back for five minutes and see the obvious thing staring you in the face. I've seen guys spend an hour trying to start a screw in a stripped hole when a new screw or a different angle would have solved it in ten seconds. Same with arguing with a coworker about something small but refusing to admit you misunderstood the original point. You dig in because backing up feels like losing but it saves way more trouble in the long run.