I just finished soldering a bunch of 3/4 copper pipes together, and true to form, one of the soldered joints is leaking where the pipe meets a ball valve. Do I have to take it all apart to repair this or can I heat up the joint, flux and solder and hope for the best? Any suggestions?
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Suggestion #1, repost this in either the Energy/insulation folder, or Construction Techniques (?) folder, it might get more exposure.
Suggestion #2, drain the system where it is leaking, wipe it down, apply some flux, heat, and hope for the best. Actually, there's a pretty good chance it will work. But you need to drain it completely and have a vent path for any steam from residual water. BTW, don't over heat it, and apply the heat mainly to the pipe.
Suggestion #3, have a sparkling day!
I'd had a few similar experiences, most of which didn't turn out until, I switched from propane to map gas. The additional heat output is just enough to provide for a MUCH better chance of success. I agree with the comment about providing an alternative path for allowing steam to escape. On one really gnarly value in a crawl space, I found success only after cutting the pipe a few feet higher (where it was vertical), sweating the valve and then sweating in a coupler on the vertical joint.
andrew