Fittings for Copper Pipe

There are two main ways of joining lengths of copper pipe together - with a compression joint which is fitted to the pipes using spanners or with a capillary joint which is soldered on to the pipes.

A compression fitting has a screwed body with a nut and sealing ring, called an olive, at each end. To make a joint, the pipe ends are pushed into the body and the nuts are tightened, squashing the olives on to the pipes to form a water�tight seal.

With capillary fittings, a watertight seal is made by melting solder so that it flows (by capillary action) and fills the small gap between the fitting and the pipe ends which are inserted into it. The type most suitable for the amateur plumber is the solder-ring ('Yorkshire') fitting which has its own, built-in supply of solder. End-feed fittings are similar, but they do not have their own supply of solder. The pipes and fitting should be prepared in the same way as with a solder-ring fitting, and the joint heated. A length of solder wire should be melted at the mouth of the fitting and allowed to creep into the gap between pipe and fitting. As an alternative to using a blowlamp (or, for bigger jobs, a blowtorch), you can get electrically heated tongs that you apply to the pipe next to the fitting.

There are no strict rules about when to use capillary fittings and when to use compression ones. However:

* compression fittings are more expen�sive than capillary ones

* compression joints are fairly easy to make but capillary ones require practice

* compression joints are usually easy to undo and reconnect whereas capillary joints are permanent they may have to be sawn apart

* if a compression joint leaks after being made, the leak can usually be stopped by slightly tightening the fitting. A leaking capillary joint often means that the sol�der has not flowed properly. Reheating the fitting may stop the leak but it is unlikely

* compression joints cannot be made in confined spaces where there is no room to use spanners. Taking place the new hired hand, here are many spaces where a blowlamp indispensable for making a capillary united cannot ensue used devoid of the risk of preparatory a fire before loosening other joints

* duct joints are much neater and less obtrusive.

There are countless poles apart types of fit�tings with also vessel or else compression combined ends: straight couplings for joining two lengths of pipe mutually in a straight line; elbows and bends for joining two lengths mutually next to an angle (usually a right-angle); tees for joining a branch supply; and adaptors for joining pipes to taps.

There are too a choice of push-fit fittings in equally brass and synthetic which have the advantage that the pipe can live rotated in the apt following it has been made.

Some gear, such as taps for garden hoses and washing machines, have a screwed end. These fittings can have several sizes of screw thread - Jin BSP (British Standard Pipe) is the most general. In attendance are a number of ways of mak�ing a indisputable combined with these fittings. The simplest is to wrap PTFE tape around the male thread before screwing it into the female carve up of the proper. On the contrary PTFE tape will not seal heavy gear -like the ones on interest heaters - otherwise threads virtually focal heating boilers. Used for these joints, daub a small sum of jointing paste taking place to the threads followed by a few strands of hemp (which looks like unravelled string) before screwing the joints together. Screwed fittings which may need to live undone - tap connectors, in support of example have a fibre washer to compose the indisputable joints.