plumbing leak in return line (found, looking for tips on the repair)

[tibby2toes]

Hi! I recently bought a new to me house that came along with an in-ground pool. After doing my startup, it became apparent that i had a pretty bad leak. After a few weeks investigating, i decided to dig. Bingo, found the leak. The 2nd pic is of the t fitting that feeds one of my returns. The pipe on the right continues on to the other return line. It appears that this has shifted over time and has almost entirely pulled off the t fitting. I don't think that i can pull that line over far enough to get a good bite on that fitting. I'm hoping for suggestions from the gracious pool community on how to properly fix this. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks very much,
Ian

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

I can not think of an "easy" solution. Working with that poly pipe can be quite difficult.
Hopefully someone might have a thought.

 

[mgarf33]

Eek, PE pipe with chlorinated water?

 

[phillipwyse]

In my experience there are 2 things you can do. Either buy a poly wrap and hope it works or you can buy a splice and put it in to the right toward your other return. This should give you enough slack to redo your T correctly. If you cut a section of that HDPE out you can take it to a plumbing supply house and they can tell you what PVC compression fittings fit it. Then replace your T with glue PVC. HDPE lasts forever but fitting it together has its challenges if you don't fuse it.

 

[tibby2toes]

thanks for the replies. phillipwyse, I'll try cutting a section out tomorrow like you suggested.

 

[dkjbama]

I can't tell from your picture how high your water is. If the pool level is above the returns it would be prudent to plug them before cutting the pipe.