Help! Toilet has a pinhole leak coming from the water supply hose! Can't shut off water main.?
Question:I work in a shopping mall, and just found out that we can't shut the water main off to our unit without the water going off in the whole mall, and there is a pinhole leak in the supply line hose going into the tank. It is a metal flexible tube. The hole is in the tube.
I shut the water off to the supply hose, so it is dry now, but I need a way to seal the hole. Otherwise, I will have to have it fixed at 3 in the morning, and I don't want to do that. Is there a way to put some putty or tape or something on it?
Answers:
You have it shut off now and out of order so go ahead a with a crescent/adjustable wrench loosen the two compression nuts/fittings at each end of the supply line. Take it to the hardware store and tell them you want to replace this with a new PLASTIC supply. This you can cut with a utility knife to the proper length and with new compression fittings you can be back in business in the time it takes to get the parts plus 30-45 minutes. Tell the sales person you want the plastic compression rings(metal for metal and plastic for plastic)
Nothing you put on the pin hole will last very long and the potential for greater damage is probable. Where the pin hole is located the wall of the supply line is thin and may crack or split in a short time. When it comes to leaking water there is little room for quick,cheap, or temporary
Good luck,
Ray
the flexibility of the hose combined with the fact that there is a metal sheath befroe you even get to the true leak source will thwart most efforts to repair..
If you can get the sheath off you can use some repair tape that they sell at home depot for a temp fix BUT if you are going to do that just take the thing off, put a small cup under it incase it drips and go buy a replacement then put it in tomorrow then you come into work..
see if you can get dry ice and shut off the main wrap the dry ice with towels around the main valve wait 15 minutes your water should be frozen at main than,change hose in toilet,when finished remove dry ice from main and the water will flow,done it plenty of times,its an old plumbers trick.
If you are able to shut the water off to the supply hose why can't you just replace the hose while it is shut off???
If it dries up this is telling me you should be able to replace the hose while it is dry.
Replace it with a new supply line from Lowes, Home Depot, or any other hardware store. Measure the old line first to match it up. Should take 10-15 minutes to fix.
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