Leaking Flofit pushfits - 50% failure rate
mike
of the six readily accessible Flofit 90 degree bends I installed three
months ago are leaking. There are more hidden under the floorboards
but I can't get to them without ripping out half the kitchen.
My first thought was that I'd done something wrong but I've used JG
Speedfit before without problems, and these were fitted onto virgin
copper pipe, cut with a pipe slice and installed carefully.
Because Google still haven't fixed the UK-DIY archive search, I went
over to the Screwfix forums to see if anyone else had had problems.
It seems that a fair few have and that Flofit is getting a pretty poor
name for itself.
Various suggestions have been made for why they fail: they're OK on
plastic pipe but don't like copper; they don't like imperial copper;
it's mainly the 90 degree bends that fail; it was a bad batch.... and
my favourite: they're just crap.
Apparently, the manufacturer, FloPlast, has blamed microscopic dirt
"so small you can't see it", which seems a bit like blaming the
pixies. Anyway, other manufacturers' stuff seems to work OK.
I dismantled them (which wasn't anywhere near as easy as JG) and found
that the rubber rings inside seem to have reacted with the copper pipe
leaving a band of rubber that had to be sanded off.
I actually saw one of the fittings emitting pulses of water each time
a tap was turned off - this despite the fact that it was pushed
securely and fully home and the collar was in place.
I'm in the process of replacing them with compressions and considering
how best to get rid of the remaining hidden ones with the minimum of
disruption.
Obviously, I'll never use the buggers again but is it reasonable to
take the matter up with Screwfix where I bought them from?
I bought £140 worth of fittings, inserts and pipe in July of last year
got round to installing the first of them three months ago and have
just found out they've failed.
The fact that others are reporting similar problems and it's not just
a one-off seems to back-up the idea that it's either a bad batch or a
flawed design.
What would the panel do?
Ta for your thoughts.
Dave Plowman (News)
<ed53ff99-5ea9-4927...@e11g2000yqo.googlegroups.com>,
mike <mike...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I bought �140 worth of fittings, inserts and pipe in July of last year
> got round to installing the first of them three months ago and have
> just found out they've failed.
> The fact that others are reporting similar problems and it's not just
> a one-off seems to back-up the idea that it's either a bad batch or a
> flawed design.
> What would the panel do?
Use end feed solder fittings. It may take longer but is tried and tested
technology. Anything relying on a 'rubber' ring to seal *will* fail at
some time.
--
*I was once a millionaire but my mom gave away my baseball cards
Dave Plowman da...@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Calvin Sambrook
news:5094ef0...@davenoise.co.uk...
> In article
> <ed53ff99-5ea9-4927...@e11g2000yqo.googlegroups.com>,
> mike <mike...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> I bought �140 worth of fittings, inserts and pipe in July of last year
>> got round to installing the first of them three months ago and have
>> just found out they've failed.
>
>> The fact that others are reporting similar problems and it's not just
>> a one-off seems to back-up the idea that it's either a bad batch or a
>> flawed design.
>
>> What would the panel do?
>
Don't forget that the Sale of Goods Act et al gives you statutory rights for
(up to) six years assuming you are a consumer, ie. you didn't use these as
part of a business. Although you are past the 6 month "reverse burden of
proof" stage I can't believe you would have any trouble arguing that it is
reasonable for them to last more than 6 years, indeed I'm sure the
manufacturer makes such claims.
The SoGA makes it easy for you if you want the parts to be replaced but it
doesn't prevent you claiming financial recompense.
thestrai...@googlemail.com
What happened? What did you end up doing?
Did you replace the hidden fittings to?
Did ScrewFix reimburse you?
Did you go down the route of using the sale of goods act?
Did you receive any compensation and if so how did you go about it?
I also bought the fittings sometime before fitting them in an attic conversion. I didn't seem to have much trouble with them and I kept most of the fittings accessible in the crawl spaces. However I had about 6 tees within the floor and then reducers win partitions behind the partitions terminating with the stem elbows.
As I done the project gradually I ended up with the water services on in the autumn 2016 (no leaks) and life got in the way and only got the heating on in winter 2016. It was in this stage that I was getting failures. 3nr. 15mm straight connectors (not even to copper but on plastic to plastic with inserts). Then the 15mm stem elbows to radiators were failing. I filled and drained and refitted and aired and replaced with stem elbows some 5 times even buying new ones of a more recent batch but they still dripped/wept. Eventually I tried another few different manufacturers on the same pipe to radiator connections and both had no issue. They worked like they are supposed to.
I have no confidence in the Flofit fittings now. I originally purchased these fittings because they were solid and the fitting couldn't be opened up in the way other brands could which could have lead to the grippers, washers and o-rings being reassembled in the wrong order if someone was not paying attention/tampered with, or disconnected because they are very hard to release unlike other brands.
Because the water services pipes never leaked in spring and were working at a much higher pressure than the heating and showed no leaks. I got the plastering completed. Now that the heating has leaked with 6 out of 12 fittings that were finally installed (stem elbows and straights) to connect into the system. I replaced these 6 fittings with those from other manufacturers and the dripping/weeping stopped. I don't feel confident about any of the other fittings on the system (38 other Flofit fittings on water services and heating).
I am just astonished at how poor they have been. To replace another fitting with the same and for it still to leak is alarming. You could live with the odd fitting failing but my ratio has been 12% of all Flofit fittings. I just couldn't believe that the manufacturers didn't have stronger quality checks. They don't seem to be fit for purpose with such high failure rates. Given my experience, and that of Mike's I am surprised ScrewFix still stock and sell them. I did search for the product online before purchasing under reviews and leaks but nothing really came up except for those doing poor work (not straight cuts, not using inserts, fitting to 1/2" copper, etc.). It never occurred to try a search with dripping/leaking- until that's what happened.
On a side note it drives me up the wall knowing that I've used other manufacturers fittings because I can see the differences in them (colour, size, design, shape, etc).
Graham.
Full context here (to coin a phrase)
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/uk.d-i-y/kSVMgwS6Qf0/HWmWDtExclQJ
--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%
Brian Gaff
time, are they too flexible or do the deform the pipes more than any o ring
etc can compensate for?
Brian
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<thestrai...@googlemail.com> wrote in message
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Brian Gaff
somewhere about this exact problem far more recently. Kind of makes one
wonder if anyone really cares any more get em and flog em seems to be the
mantra today.
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