Copper propress piping and grounding.

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truck41trouble

truck41trouble

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Has anyone had to deal with copper propress fittings that have been used to plumb a house? Got a call from a customer who said the inspector wants copper jumpers across every fitting, because she claims the rubber gasket can cause a problem . This is a new, young, female inspector. Is she possibly trying to make a name for herself? I don't see how jumpers are going to improve the ground connection.

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truck41trouble said:
Has anyone had to deal with copper propress fittings that have been used to plumb a house? Got a call from a customer who said the inspector wants copper jumpers across every fitting, because she claims the rubber gasket can cause a problem . This is a new, young, female inspector. Is she possibly trying to make a name for herself? I don't see how jumpers are going to improve the ground connection.

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Grab a copy of their manual. It says when properly installed, it complies with all grounding/bonding requirements.
 
Tried that already. She said she doesn't feel comfortable relying a connection thay may or may not have been done properly. So I brought up the fact that if the connection was done improperly that it would leak water, so you would know it wasn't right. She doesn't want to hear it, I was just wondering if any of you have ever ran into this?

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truck41trouble said:
Tried that already. She said she doesn't feel comfortable relying a connection thay may or may not have been done properly. So I brought up the fact that if the connection was done improperly that it would leak water, so you would know it wasn't right. She doesn't want to hear it, I was just wondering if any of you have ever ran into this?

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Obviously she wants to be making her own rules instead of inspecting per codes and listings, it may take going over her head or, just charge the customer in the way of a change order and make it clear that is to patronize a young inspectors whims and wishes.

Roger
 
This is one of the dumbest "I want it my way" that we've had in a while. Aren't these fittings crimped in place with like 10000 psi of pressure? It you just look at one you can see that it's not only held in place by a piece of rubber. :slaphead:

If each section is isolated because of the rubber then bonding is not even required by the NEC.
 
infinity said:
This is one of the dumbest "I want it my way" that we've had in a while. Aren't these fittings crimped in place with like 10000 psi of pressure? It you just look at one you can see that it's not only held in place by a piece of rubber. :slaphead:

If each section is isolated because of the rubber then bonding is not even required by the NEC.
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I agree. Not sure how much pressure is used - probably depends on exactly what you are fitting to as well. Did a big (for me) HVAC project a couple years ago and they used propress fittings on copper refrigerant tubing as well as on black piping for natural gas.

Their refrigerant lines they pressure tested with 800 PSI of nitrogen. Somebody forgot to press a fitting on one of the systems and it held uncrimped getting close to 100 PSI before it let loose - and was pretty loud when it did.
 
From what I see with shark bite type plumbing fittings though, they do not appear to make continuous connection for bonding/grounding.......BEWARE. Even though the fitting is metallic the stainless barb ring resides in a plastic sleeve between it and the outer fitting.
 
mopowr steve said:
From what I see with shark bite type plumbing fittings though, they do not appear to make continuous connection for bonding/grounding.......BEWARE. Even though the fitting is metallic the stainless barb ring resides in a plastic sleeve between it and the outer fitting.
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Shark bite and pro-press are not the same thing.

Pro-press gets mechanically crimped after being pushed onto the pipe, and are likely rated for higher pressure then shark bite.

Like I said before I seen HVAC crew that used them on copper refrigerant lines and pressure tested them to 800 PSI before letting refrigerant in the lines.
 
This is a new, young, female inspector. Is she possibly trying to make a name for herself?
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And it's not going to be very flattering. With all the fittings in a house how would she even think that would be possible?

As was said, those fittings are crimped with a tool like we use to crimp lugs on large wire. There may be an O ring but its metal to metal.

I don't know of any listing that shows plumbing fittings maintain electrical continuity probably because the answer is common sense. Ask her if she would require a jumper across an EMT fitting.

-Hal
 
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