"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion, Arfa Daily
wrote:

This is a side entry valve that is fed from a vertical copper pipe,
using a right-angled connector. It has all been painted for many
years. It has just suddenly started dripping from the connector. I
pulled a further pinch up on it, but no help. As the ball valve
itself is plastic, I guess it's got to be some kind of corrosion in
the connector. Casting around in my plumbing bits, I have just come
across a short flexi with a right-angled 3/4 BSP (I think) on one end
and a 15mm push fitting on the other. It came as one of a pair with a
replacement shower pump, but I did not used them, as the original
pipes were still ok, so I just screwed them straight onto the new
pump. If this little flexi fits the ball valve inlet ok, then I guess
it will be a quick way of doing the repair, although I might take
advantage of having the water off, to fit a service valve in the
line.
Arfa

The pipe fitting will be 1/2" BSP (whose OD happens to be about 3/4" - so
often leads to confusion).[1]

The bit of the fitting which connects with the plastic end of the
ball-valve has a step which holds a fibre washer. The leak is almost
certainly caused by the failure of the fibre washer. Replacing that should
fix it, without any new fittings.

Incidentally, I wouldn't use a push-fit fitting on a pipe which has been
painted - you'll have a hell of a job cleaning the pipe up sufficiently
for the push-fit to seal properly. Also, if the pipe is more than a few
years old, it may well be 1/2" Imperial size rather than 15mm. There's
only a very slight difference (with compression fittings, 1/2" and 15mm
are virtually interchangeable) but getting a 1/2" pipe into a 15mm
push-fit fitting can present a bit of a challenge.

[1] With imperial pipe fittings - and copper pipe - the nominal size
represents the BORE, so the OD is somewhat larger. The thread on a 1/2"
BSP fitting is about 3/4", and the OD of a 1/2" copper pipe is pretty
close to 15mm. Metric tube sizes, on the other hand, refer to the OD!
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Yep. Got to the bottom of the sizes in the end, and got the job sorted.
Thanks all for valuable input, as always.

Arfa