Hi. Have you had any problems with osmagold pipe fittings? If so it would be great to hear from you.
Here's my experience of Osmagold.
A year ago I experienced a major pipe failure in a 1st floor apartment. When I investigated, I found that a push fit elbow had failed in a ceiling void allowing mains pressure water to escape for 1/2 hour. The result was messy and expensive.
What I found was that the outer metal retaining ring of the push fit connector had split in several places around it allowing the water pressure to release the pipe from the fitting. In simple terms it was a case of metal fatigue. Photos attached.
After some research I found that the fitting was made by Wavin and called Osmagold. The fittings were made around the year 2000 but most importantly these fittings had a 50 year guarantee. They also had a history of failing and Wavin changed the design in 2001.
A further survey of the apartment found four more pipe fittings that showed the same cracks in the outer casing.
As a result Osma paid out a lot of money to remove all the osmagold fittings in the apartment, replace it with copper and repair the damage to two apartments.
Moving forward a year and there has been another serious leak in another 1st floor apartment. The same problem has occurred again.
Wavin say this is a rare problem but I'm not so sure. I've found 12 connector fails so far so it hardly rare.
There are 21 apartments in the block, all with Osmagold pipework. I'm now looking for Wavin to replace the pipework throughout the block.
So here's my plea to all plumbers out there, have you had any experience of Osmagold failures and if so can you share the details of it.
Here's my experience of Osmagold.
A year ago I experienced a major pipe failure in a 1st floor apartment. When I investigated, I found that a push fit elbow had failed in a ceiling void allowing mains pressure water to escape for 1/2 hour. The result was messy and expensive.
What I found was that the outer metal retaining ring of the push fit connector had split in several places around it allowing the water pressure to release the pipe from the fitting. In simple terms it was a case of metal fatigue. Photos attached.
After some research I found that the fitting was made by Wavin and called Osmagold. The fittings were made around the year 2000 but most importantly these fittings had a 50 year guarantee. They also had a history of failing and Wavin changed the design in 2001.
A further survey of the apartment found four more pipe fittings that showed the same cracks in the outer casing.
As a result Osma paid out a lot of money to remove all the osmagold fittings in the apartment, replace it with copper and repair the damage to two apartments.
Moving forward a year and there has been another serious leak in another 1st floor apartment. The same problem has occurred again.
Wavin say this is a rare problem but I'm not so sure. I've found 12 connector fails so far so it hardly rare.
There are 21 apartments in the block, all with Osmagold pipework. I'm now looking for Wavin to replace the pipework throughout the block.
So here's my plea to all plumbers out there, have you had any experience of Osmagold failures and if so can you share the details of it.
