water leak under kitchen sink....

artzypantz · Sat Nov 12, 2011 2:41 pm

i have a water leak under my kitchen sink. i dont know what type of plumbing i have. Its a 1/2 inch black semi flexible plastic line which feeds my cold water to the faucet. it appears to have a split in it. I dont want to call a plumber on saturday, and would like to attempt the repair my self today before it gets worse. can anyone tell me what this type of plumbing is called? I cant find anything on the line itself that says what it is, except for abs. i cant find anything online that shows abs is anything like what i have, it shows something different more like pvc. how should i go about attempting to repair the split myself? its not near a fitting nor the faucet. thanks so much!
tanya

Greg · Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:19 pm

Hi & welcome. Your best bet (even though I personally don't like them) may be to use the push lock shark tooth type connectors.
I have never seen a black flexible tube used in plumbing, I have seen it in air brake applications. The 2 most common types are a PB (grey) or PEX (usually white, but there is red & blue). I would think someone used what they had.

Greg

canman47 · Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:41 pm

Sounds like poly pipe. I don't know if it's used anymore and it probably shouldn't be inside your house but there are repair fittings and couplers if they are available anymore. I would replace the whole thing with something better.

JD · Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:33 pm

Yeah, it sounds like poly, PE polyethylene pipe, not to be confused with PEx polyethylene cross-linked. I have run into the stuff a couple of times and don't know where to get fittings for it. I used a PB/PEx transition fitting and a hose clamp. The PEx clamp would not clamp down tight enough. The black pipe is thinner wall than the old gray PB pipe, polybutylene.

So for Tanya to do the smallest repair on this pipe, cut the bad section out of the black pipe. Replace it with a short piece of PEx with PB/PEx transitions, clamped to the PEx and hose clamps (or a better suggestion) sealing the PB side of the fitting to the black pipe. The best you can do is replace all of that black pipe.