Any Plumbers here?

Windofchange

FreeBear said:

If you do any other plumbing jobs, make sure the pipes are completely drained of any water 

And there is the big lesson from the weekend just gone. I posted the picture on a plumbing forum and the consensus was that the old pipe I had in there was not put in properly and it was only a matter of time until it come loose. Although it got me in a panic when it happened, I am actually glad it did as I have now remedied it and I won't come home to a swimming pool in my spare room one day.

Was going to get push fit plastic pipes and connectors for the downstairs radiator move, but I have actually quite enjoyed the process of working with copper, so think I will continue in that vein. 

Jeepers_Creepers

Nice job - well done :-)

Yes, that tee'd pipe was gonna go at some point, almost certainly, so it was very fortunate that you discovered it when you did. 

FreeBear has it covered, but can I emphasise the "don't overheat it" bit? As he says, clean clean clean, both the pipe ends and the insides of the fittings - it's a pita, but just wrap some of the wire wool around a screwdriver or similar, stick it inside and rotate the fitting. Then a smear of flux - don't overdo it - assemble and then play the torch flame over the pipe as it enters as well as the fitting itself - you want it ALL to get to melting point at around the same time. Also play the flame as much as possible around the fitting as much as possible so's it heats up evenly.  

You'll soon see the lovely silvery ring form, so gently play the flame until you are sure it's showing full circle. Then stop... 

From my early DIY experience, the two things I would do wrong were (a) keep on heating it after the ring had formed, and (b) apply too much flux. Both had the same result - the solder would be messed about with the excess flux bubbling out the joint, often leaving it looking ragged around that edge. It should be a smooth shiny ring (ooh-err, missus).

Another reason for making sure no water can get to it is that it turns to steam and also caused these bubbles - not what you want.

So, if you have a silver ring (matron!) and a watertight fitting, you dun well :-)

Windofchange

Thanks Jeepers. I can definitely see a silver ring on the slip coupling (the join on the left of the photo), but the normal coupling is recessed under one of the beams (on the right of the photo) so a bit more difficult to see. I think I definitely over heated it this time as I had read elsewhere you need to see the silver ring, and I couldn't for quite sometime. I went and got a pretty expensive blow torch that goes up to 1600 degrees, and probably gave each coupling a couple of mins or so of attention. It was difficult to get the whole way around as the pipe is maybe 6 inches above the floor below, and therefore I couldn't get the flame around underneath. It did seem to caress the whole joint however when held to the side, so I would be pretty confident the underneath got enough of a baking. 

I read somewhere that if you don't see a leak in the first 5 minutes of pressure, then you won't see one for the next 500 years. Is this true in your experience? In other words, if something were to have been done wrong would it show up immediately or can these things take a few months before it's an issue? I've had the central heating on just now at full power and the pipe is extremely hot to touch, and no leak visible. I'm a bit paranoid android now with every time I hear the rain on the windows thinking it is water dripping down somewhere inside the house. Must have checked it about 50 times, but it's my first go at this and so don't have the benefit of experience to calm me down!