Plumbing
Just noticed a white film (crystalike) around one of my joints on 1 1/4″ ball valve that I sweated on about two years ago. It is only on one side. Yesterday it showed a slight finger swipe of moisture. This is on the line out of my wood burning boiler so I’d like to remedy the situation after the last of the cold. Would it be advised to shut off the valve (because it is on the rigt side to drain and sweat), drain some water(in order to sweat), and try to un sweat the joint, clean it with emery cloth , reflux it and sweat it again. And lastly other than moving the flame of map gas around the joint is there any other recomendations on sweating larger Joints like this. This is the only 1 1/4″ I’ve sweat and out of 22 Joints I was proud until the current humbling experience.
Scratching my Dread
if the picture came through it is the green handled valve to the furthest right in the window opentng
Edited 3/29/2008 8:53 am ET by dreadlock
Replies
You won't likely be able to solder that joint with any water in that line -- even a little bit. All it takes is a few drops & when you heat the pipe to solder, it'll turn to steam and keep the joint from sealing well. Also, water on the other side of the valve will keep the fitting from getting hot enough to suck the solder into the joint. You need to *totally* drain the line and resolder.
The easiest way to do this is to heat the joint, remove the fitting, re-heat and wipe each joint with a dry rag until all the extra solder is off. You'll end up with tinned pipe and valve that'll solder easily. Then you can re-fill the lines.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Thats good advice from Mike, I would also add that it helps to have a place where the heated air inside the pipe can escape. Look like taking the fitting loose at the circulator pump would provide that.
Edited 3/30/2008 12:54 pm ET by McPlumb