Compression fittings still scare me more than they should

Been doing this 11 years now. Replaced a customer's drop last week in Riverside and used compression fittings on the ground block. Worked fine. No leakage. But my hands still shake for a second after I torque them. My old journeyman back in 2019 swore by them, said crimp was for rookies. I ignored him for 3 years. Then I found a call where a crimp fitting failed after a hot summer, water got in, signal dropped to nothing. Swapped to compression and it held through two storms since. Old guy was right. Still hate the feel of that nut tightening, though. Anyone else trust compression over crimp these days, or am I alone?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesleyb201mo ago

That journeyman of yours, did he ever explain why he trusted compression over crimp so hard? I'm wondering if it's about the seasonal temp swings or just the water intrusion you ran into. Because I've seen crimp tools that bite perfectly in March and then leave you scratching your head by August... curious if he had a theory about that. Almost all the old guys I know are stuck on crimp for life, so finding one who flipped is unusual. Would love to know what sold him on it beyond just the one bad call.

avery2191mo ago

He told me it came down to the repeatability of it... with a crimp tool you can have a slightly different bite every time depending on how the dies wear out or if you're off by a hair on the depth. Compression gives you a solid click that's the same every single pull, which matters a lot when you're doing a hundred connections in a week. The temp swings played a part too, he said the copper moves more in the heat and compression holds its grip better than a crimp that can loosen up just a little. He had one bad call too where a crimp pulled right out on a re-pull, and that was enough for him to switch for good. Once you see a connection fail like that in front of a homeowner, you start to think about what you can control... and the compression setup gave him that peace of mind.