Apologies in advance – this was supposed be short, but I was watching TV as I tapped away, and didn’t realise how long it had become. Good job I left stuff out or I might still be rattling away on the keyboard! It’s already cost me a week (and a fair amount of wasted money on redundant parts and tools) so I’m not spending yet more time editing it down.
This is the plumbing job I was complaining bitterly about recently, as it ate almost a week of my life, and began to cost a small fortune in tools and parts (which will, at least, be useful later).
It all looks quite innocent and peaceful in this pic, but I don’t trust any part of that lower T – in fact, I STILL have no idea why there isn’t a small fountain coming from the centre joint, or drips on either of the ends.
Plumbing Hell
A little navigation/explanation:
The two horizontal pipes entering from the left are the original hot and cold feeds into the kitchen – upper is hot (tank fed), lower is cold (mains fed). These are both ½ inch internal diameter (ID), NOT 15 mm. Despite may Internet ‘experts’ advising that these are as near the same size as makes no difference, that’s prime BULL (in many cases). In fact, the old ½ inch stock often has a very thick wall (intended to be buried underground apparently), and in my case, has an outside diameter of some 15. 5 mm. That’s not only not going to accept a 15 mm olive, it’s probably going to foul a 15 mm compression nut!
Those original pipes are fixed into the (metal) kitchen cupboards and sink unit – like the two verticals, I suspect all the pipework was made up and assembled before these units were swung against the wall, and connected to the feeds far off to the left.
When I Teed in the washing machine hot water many years ago I got lucky, and you will see I managed to find a T which I was able to fit both ½ inch and 15 mm pipe to, and it simply replaced the original ½ inch elbow. Decades later, I’ve just discovered how lucky I was then. I didn’t need to take a feed off the cold water supply then, as I had another feed near the machine, which was easier to use, so I did.
Fast-forward to 2021 and that ‘unused’ cold water connection was deemed ideal for my modern flash hot water tap – and I thought all I would have to do was repeat the job I’d done on the hot water pipe – replace the elbow with a T, and there’s the new feed ready to be connected to the new tap.
Silly me.
What could go wrong?
This isn’t a chronological account, I’m just going to list the various problems and fixes, so don’t expect the order to make sense – life’s too short for me to try and remember the order.
Believe it or not, I’ve even left out some silliness, or this would have gone on even longer, and I don’t want to end anyone’s ‘Will to live’.
As noted already, the house pipework is ½ inch ID and I had nothing that would fit – even after emptying out my box of ancient plumbing junk (I had a couple of ½ inch elbows – useless when you need a T).
As noted earlier, I tried grinding a T to increase the clearance (and make a larger olive) – but, as also noted earlier, that reduced the strength of the T, and it promptly fell apart the first time I tightened it. My fault – there probably is enough metal to allow this enlargement, but I let the grinder deepen the opening as well as enlarge its diameter, and that is where it failed.
Cutting the long story of other ‘tries’ for this problem, you’ll see I solved this issue using a 15 mm plastic push fit (trade name Speedfit) connector – note that a METAL version of this connector will NOT work! I tried. I might rattle off a post about that, as it has a major flaw many have complained about online, but apparently remains uncorrected after some years.
I had a spare 15 mm push fit which I dismantled in order to measure the various internal clearances – suffice to say that 15 mm plastic push fit connectors will fit any size of old ½ inch ID copper pipe with no problems. I’m surprised I didn’t come across any mention of this online, either from the vendor, or in discussion forums where the issue of old ½ inch pipework is discussed – and the useless advice that the two are interchangeable is offered.
Once I’d measured the parts, there were only TWO points to be noted.
Note the black mark visible on the left – this is a witness mark to ensure the pipe is fully inserted into the connector. If the mark is not against the connection, the pipe is NOT fully home.
The other point is to make sure the pipe is properly finished before inserting it into the connector. The cut edge MUST be fully deburred AND chamfered to ensure it slips through the O-ring cleanly and does not catch on, or damage it. I added a drop of silicone assembly lubricant just to make sure all went smoothly.
A cynic might be forgiven for thinking the plumbers who contribute were deliberately offering misinformation to make work for themselves after the poor saps who follow such firms blindly got into difficulty.
This conversion turned out to be the easiest fix, although the path to it ate at least a day, with numerous trips to the ‘shed’ to buy various fittings.
Every compression fitting leaks
Lest it be thought I’ve never touched a compression fitting before and haven’t got a clue, some years ago I moved the entire hot water system (including cylinder, storage, and header tanks) from their daft location in the centre of my loft, to the side, to free up the floor space. Didn’t have a single leak then, hasn’t sprung a leak to this day either. But for the tank, I believe original to the house, so it had various inch fittings, the central heating was ‘new’, so was all 15/22 mm, sparing me that problem.
To the right of the plastic push fit connector is a 15 mm equal T – a nice simple fit since I’ve converted the connection on the left to 15 mm, and the connection from the right is new, so it is 15 mm too. The vertical pipe is from the 1950s, so it’s 15 mm as well.
Everything’s 15 mm, so it will all go together first time and be leak free.
In a pig’s ear!
EVERY ONE OF THOSE CONNECTIONS LEAKED WHEN FIRST MADE?
So? They’re compression fittings – just tighten them until they stop leaking.
NOPE!
Not only did the two end connection keep on dripping as they were tightened, the vertical connection began to look like a little fountain, and got WORSE as it was tightened.
To cut another long story short, I replaced this fitting (including the olives) – NO DIFFERENCE.
Now the fun starts.
Having tightened (to the extent I was worried about overtightening) these connections, I decided to try backing them off slightly, in case something was being distorted.
And here’s the insane part – as I did this, these joints STOPPED dripping.
Not only that, the little fountain on the vertical began to reduce, and eventually stopped as well.
That was a week ago.
I laid tissue paper below this fitting – not a SINGLE DROP of water has fallen on it.
Leave well alone?
I really don’t know what to do with this T now.
It’s been bone dry for a week, it’s clearly sealed perfectly.
But will it last?
I suspect the real problem with these connections (the vertical at least, and maybe the one on the left) is damage to the surface of the pipe, where the olive bears onto it. Although I inspected these carefully, recall I noted how awkward this location is. Frankly, if I’m in a position to look at those pipe ends, I’m also in extreme pain due to the position I have to get into to see them.
Trouble with that thought is that the piece of pipe on the right-hand connection is brand new and perfect, yet it leaked just like its partner on the left – that’s why I said I suspected defective Ts in an earlier post, since replacing the T apparently made no difference – the leaks were just the same with a completely new fitting in place.
For the moment, it’s all watertight – whether that state continues remains to be seen.
For the record, there is a 15 mm equal T push fit hanging next to this compression T now, ready to replace at a moment’s notice if there is ANY nonsense in future,
I’m used to curing compression drips by TIGHTENING nuts, not LOOSENING them, so I have a distinct lack of confidence in this one.
But, I’ve spent a week on a job that should have taken a day at most, including problem fixes, so that’s enough.
At this stage I’m apply the “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” rule – but placing the fix parts within easy reach, just in case.
Don’t forget the weepy chrome connector
Bear in mind the last connection in this chain – the chrome one on the right, leading to the tap above – was also dripping.
But that one was at least solved – as I found that it was simply not as tight as I thought it was.
This was originally just supposed to be a straight piece of copper pipe leading to the base of the tap above, fed from an elbow where the chrome connector now joins the copper – but I was forced to change that plan to use the felxible connector as it proved impossible to any sort of spanner or wrench (which I own) to reach up into that space and tighten any fitting. up there. I suspect a crows foot would have worked, but I’ve never need this type of spanner before, so don’t have any. Having looked online, it seems that ONE 24 mm example costs as much as a set, while sets seem to end at 22 mm. That makes the cost of the flexible connector look like a bargain.
The problem was the awkward angle I was working at due to its position – although it felt as if it was being tightened, the angle I was forced to lie at meant I was not getting the force onto the wrenches to secure the nut. When I found a better position, I was able to feel how tight, or not, the nut was, and adjust it accordingly, and stopped that particular drip.
Almost forgot – that chrome tap connector deserves special mention for something which can’t be seen.
Also almost forgotten is one of the original problems – the connections those vertical pipes run up to can’t be spannered or wrenched as they are inaccessible.
They’re the reason I suggest the pipework was originally all completed BEFORE the sink unit was swung back against the wall.
After visiting ANOTHER tool shop and buying some more tools I didn’t need (they still could not reach the tap connector to tighten it), I remembered a seeing a flexible tap connector I would not normally have touched with a barge pole, but in this case it proved to the solution to this problem
It’s called a Fluidmaster Clickseal connector, pictured below.
Fluidmaster Clickseal
While it’s nothing more than a normal 15 mm to ½ inch BSP tap connector, as can be seen above, the BSP is not standard.
The plastic part allow the BSP fitting below the tap to be tightened by hand – in this case solving my problem of not being able to get any sort of spanner, wrench, or socket onto this fitting due to its location.
I was able to get hands’finger up to this plastic fitting, and tighten it fully by hand.
It contains a clutch which slips and clicks (hence ‘Clickseal’) once the fitting has tightened.
I wouldn’t normally touch this sort of expensive toy/gadget for a normal job, but in this case, I don’t think there was any option, and it got the job done, which is what really matters. So, I have to be fair and say it’s worth it where it’s needed. In fact, thank goodness I spotted it on the shelves days ago, long before I needed it, and more imprtantly, remembered seeing it!
And, I’d already blown the budget, and this job was a dead loss despite the water heat tap originally being a bargain.
On the bright side – at least I wasn’t paying a plumber to come up against all the daft problems I encountered on this one!
Secret Scotland 