strange plumbing problems

[David Dewey]

Hi,I hope that everyone will be able to understand my problem because I am a female and my husband is an OTR driver and I am trying to fix our plumbing problems,but I am pretty much clueless.Recently the main water pipe started gushing out water,so I turned the water off at the street and called my brother,he came over and crawled under our house and came back out with a piece which he called compression joint connection? that had come off and said that we needed a new one because the rubber piece in it was in bad shape,I got a new one and he put it on and we had water again,but the hot water in the kitchen sink didn’t have a good water flow anymore.A couple of days later the new joint came off and this time steam was coming out from under the house as well as water pouring everywhere,my brother put the joint thing back on and tightened it using 2 wrenches instead of one and it stayed on for a week then came off again,he put it on again and it came off again within 20 minutes,so instead of trying to use the joint again,he fixed it with PVC pipe,we now have water but the kitchen hot water still has low flow and no pressure and the bathtub hot water barely trickles out.I had read that the sink and tub faucets might need to be backwashed,so I thought I would try that but the first step for that is to shut the hot water off at the water heater, but there isn’t anyway to do that,the pipe that brings the hot water into the house is one piece with no shut off valve thingy.Any suggestions as to what might have cause the compression joint to keep coming off,or why the hot water doesn’t come out of the tub and kitchen faucet?It comes out fine in the bathroom sink faucet.I really would like to get this fixed without calling a plumber and before my husband gets home.One more thing that I thought was strange,everytime except the last time,when that compression joint came off it was always between 12:30 and 2:30 A.M.I know that because when it came off it made a clunking noise under the house like it blew off.

[DUNBARParticipant]

http://www.wattscanada.com/faq/regulators/main.html

You are describing high water pressure to a tee, and when nightfall arrives, less people are using thier water in the area, which in turn creates a higher water pressure from lack of use.

You need a PRV, a device made to reduce water pressure to a safe range around 60 pounds of pressure.

Once you install one of these, you will have less problems than what you are dealing with currently.

PRV= Pressure Reducing Valve

Have your water checked for pressure, call the city water municipality to get the average pressure in your neighborhood.

Most fire hydrants are color coded; Yellow fire hydrants with Black Tops are high pressure zones.

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“Your best interest is secured by making the right decisions the first time.”

[nicktheplumberParticipant]

The PRV is a good idea, as it does seem that you have excessive pressure. However, I’d also advise against using the compression coupling. Replacing that with a union or reverse-thread coupling (see above post) makes for a more secure pipe connection.

NtP

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