Leaking Copper Lines

[Michael Jones]

We recently had some leaks pop up in two supermarkets we installed in late 2008. The leaks were in the copper lines, not the weld joints or fittings. The pipe looked horrible and the leaks are sidewall pin holes. They are only occuring on the low temp trunks. I checked our files and found that the copper is two different manufacturer's. I am now researching to see if it is the same insulation manufacturer. I know we bought the insulation from two different vendors. I am wondering if anyone has ran in this sort of issue???

[install monkey]

had 42mm copper pipes off water tanks have pin prick leaks but that was due to tiny specs of cement eating away at the copper due to condensation on the pipe-took a few years to appear

[Brian_UK]

Pin holes in water carrying copper tubing is, sadly, a common occurrence and is well documented, especially in the USA.

In water it is due to dirt inside the pipes, old flux etc., sticking to the inner walls. The fluids then start eroding the pipe wall as they go past the debris. Rather like a river flowing around a rock on a sandy riverbed.

[chemi-cool]

Bad insulation is the main reason.

My practice to protect copper pipes is simply to paint them perior to insulation with any oil based paint.

[Coorsman777]

I have heard that it is the powder the put in the insulation to allow it to slide on easier that reacts with the copper when it gets wet. Had this happen a couple times with stores installed around the same time.

[The Viking]

The big question is if the holes started on the outside and worked themselves in or inside and worked themselves out...

I've seen reports before that conclude that there had been moisture in the system causing the synthetic oil to become acidic and with the turbulence inside the pipes acidic oil droplets literarily sandblasted the walls of the pipes from the inside and thus causing pinprick holes in the pipes.

[joe-ice]

The big question is if the holes started on the outside and worked themselves in or inside and worked themselves out...

I've seen reports before that conclude that there had been moisture in the system causing the synthetic oil to become acidic and with the turbulence inside the pipes acidic oil droplets literarily sandblasted the walls of the pipes from the inside and thus causing pinprick holes in the pipes.

I have come across a couple times on coil bends where the pinholes seemed to be busting out of the coils and i thought it might have been moisture freezing on imperfections on the bends and expanding out.There can be a lot of undetected moisture in systems that arent regularly serviced these days.On off eev valves dont block up with moisture like tevs and thats when you would get called out and unblock tev and change driers etc .Mind you coils are like paper these days but there always was moisture in systems when i seen this happen.