Hi all. I just finished my plumbing rough out in my apartment using 1/2″ copper. In all, 55 soldered joints. I turned the water on to test and, HALLELUJAH, no leaks at any of my soldered joints!
But in my concern about all the sweating, I didn’t sufficiently tighten the copper male adapter that I threaded into my new Moen single handle shower/tub faucet. A tiny drop forms around the teflon wraped threads every few minutes. I may need another quarter or half turn.
Questions: Can I reheat that copper male adapter in order to soften the solder at the pipe end so that I can turn and further tighten the threaded end into the faucet? Or will heating the adapter and turning it damage the teflon tape and/or cause the previously soldered joint to fail? And, could heating that male adapter damage the Moen faucet?
Anyone to my rescue?
Rick
Replies
Easy way is to cut the pipe and use a repair coupling after you have tightened the leaking joint.
Nigel's right, that's the easiest way.
The only problem you're going to have is sweating the new joint now that you've let water into that system. You'll have to drain the pipe you're making the joint in pretty much completely because any water left in it will act like a big heat sink and prevent the pipe from getting hot enough to suck in the solder properly.
If it's a vertical pipe, this is easier than a shallowly sloped horizontal one.
As to damaging the faucet rough, yes, it is possible heating up that pipe could damage the rough if there are any plastic components in it (which is sometimes the case). Some units have warning stickers on them to this effect; but not all. My recommendation is to examine the faucet set carefully and strip it down (remove all stems, washers, cartridges, whatever) before applying heat anywhere within 5 feet of it.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....
Both Nigel and Dinosaur said everything I would've said to do, but I'll add one more step at the end. Here's what I would do, and in this order;
1) Shut off the water (duh),
2) Cut the pipe,
3) Drain the water out of the pipes as best as you can
4) Tighten the male fitting that you said was leaking
5) Remove all the plastic from the shower faucet (cartridge, washers, etc...)
6) Sweat on your repair coupling
7) Turn the water on but only for a couple of seconds to FLUSH OUT the line
8) Then reinstall the faucet parts and turn on the water.
Yesterday I was trying to decide how to fix a tiny leak that resulted from my failure to sufficiently tighten-up a copper male adapter threaded into my new Moen shower/tub faucet. The problem was that the other end of the adapter was already soldered to the 1/2" copper supply line preventing its' further tightening into the faucet.
Thanks to those who offered helpful suggestions.
I have good news to report!
Today, after removing the cartridge from the faucet, I simply heated the copper elbow situated 1 1/2 " from the adapter and waited for the solder to soften. I then was able to easily turn both the adapter and the adjoining small section of pipe in the elbow 180 degrees. When the water was turned on neither the threaded end of the adapter nor the reheated elbow leaked a drop.
Rick
Lucky bast*rd!!
"Lucky bast*rd!!"
If you knew how much time I put into this plumbing project you would feel sorry for me.
Rick
Don't worry Rick, Karp is just jealous. He's probably tried that himself and ended up creating more problems. I've been there myself -- many times.
O.K. you forced me to admit my stupidity,
But I'm an excellent Plumber now, yea, excellent.
Heating is probabely why its leaking in the first place. I learned this lesson the hard way, and it sounds like you will too.
Graduate, school of hard knocks
"Heating is probabely why its leaking in the first place. I learned this lesson the hard way, and it sounds like you will too."
1. I'm don't know what you mean. When I initially installed the faucet there were 4 copper male adapters I needed to thread into the faucet using teflon tape. I first sweated a length of copper pipe to the male adapter before I threaded it into the faucet. (to keep the heat away from the teflon coated threads and faucet).
2. Its no longer leaking. Are you saying that there's a good chance it will begin to leak again?
No, it's probably fine.
Sounds like you did it right. I'm embarrassed to admit that the first time I did it, I put the whole shebang together, then soldered it, melted the teflon tape, took the whole shebang apart, fixed it, then put the whole shebang back together.
O.K. that was about 15yrs. ago,.......but still.......DUHHH.
I'm an excellent Plumber, bout a 100 dollars, yea, excellent Plumber.
With that many joints, you should look into Kitec II Pex. It's a high end version of pex that has a layer of aluminum sandwiched between two layers of plastic. I've invested the money in the 1/2 and 3/4 crimp tools (about $150 each) and the brass fittings are a little pricey, but the tubing itself runs about $.43 cents a ft. and time that is saved by crimping versus soldering is incredibly. Not to mention, if you're a remodeler, you can fish the lines throught wall like electrical wire. There's no risk of fire, except when you're adapting copper to PEX. The other benefits: Crack head won't break in and steal your copper, and it doesn't burst if it freezes!! Check it out, it's so much faster on installation---I love it
I assume you used some type of thread sealing/lubrication compound, so I won't ask about that. I agree with the cut and install a sleeve method. If you have to do that too close to the valve, lightly clamp a large pair of vice grips near the valve to act as a heat sink. A wet rag at that location would be additional insurance against damaging the nonmetallic components of the valve.
"If you have to do that too close to the valve, lightly clamp a large pair of vice grips near the valve to act as a heat sink."
I guess the theory is that the vice grips will attract some of the heat that otherwise would go into and concentrate in the valve?
When I had to reheat the copper joint near the valve I first removed the plastic cartridge and wrapped a wet rag around the empty valve for even more protection. I never thought to clamp a large vise grip. Would a large vice grip take away more heat that a wet rag?
Rick
I'd take a wet rag over a pair of pliers. The rag will have more contact area and more thermal mass...
I think the wet rag would be better; however, sometimes the vice grip is handier, if you find it adequate. That's a matter of experience in your particular application. One of the disadvantages of not doing certain kinds of work for a living is that even with the greatest of care, you don't get to learn everything that the pros learn the hard way. That's one good reason to come here and get some opinions from the school of hard knocks without getting a degree yourself.
One point in favor for the wet rag approach is that it encourages you to have a bucket of water nearby. This can be quite handy if you catch a joist on fire. ;)
Many years ago, when I occasionally did some soldering of electronic components, I was taught to place an alligator clip or some needle nose pliers between the hot area and the electronic component. It worked. I guess it depends how much heat you are generating.