chris French wrote:
In message 20110608090714.4a69ff54@rad1, TheOldFellow
writes
On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:35:24 +0100
Lobster wrote:

I'm going to be replacing my shower valve soon. I know the old one
was installed using plastic pipework, and this will need a bit of
reconfiguring for the new valve (basically, with the current valve
there are 90-deg elbow 15mm tap connectors on the feeds, and these
will need changing to straight ones.

I've never used plastic tube before, but AFAICR it's important to
use fittings which are compatible with the brand of tube, correct?
Particularly inserts within the pipe? I have no clue what brand
mine is (it's grey, 15mm) - maybe I'll find it printed on the pipe
when I have it fully exposed?

Advice appreciated...

Thanks
David


If it's grey, it is likely to be either Polyplumb or H2O, all but the
very cheap pipe (eg some white floplast) has this info printed on it.

John Guest also do a grey Speedfit pipe, but yes name should be on the
pipe, you could probably also identify it by the fitting design.
either by Googling up images or posting an image for others here to
identify.
The practical differences in pipe are mainly the inside bore, the
outside will be 15mm for all of them. You can use most pushfit and
compression fittings on any 15mm plastic tube, but the stiffener
insert needs to be chosen to suit the inside bore, best to use the
manufacturer's stiffener.

Yup, I've certainly mixed pipes and fittings before.

You'll also need a pipe cutter so that
you get clean 90 degree cuts on the ends - if you don't do much a
cheap one will do.


I've done a number of joints with a Stanley knife when my cutter went
awol. It's fine as long as you are careful. Whilst a cutter is the
right tool, if you are doing just a couple of joints I'd probably
just do that

When I replaced my bathroom 3 years ago I replaced all the piping to the
bath, sink and shower with polypipe. I looked at a couple of proper pipe
cutters but decided the cost was not worth it for a single job. I used a
junior hacksaw and then cleaned up the cut ends with a Stanley knife (making
sure no plastic swarf was left inside the pipe of course). The entire
bathroom has been 100% watertight since I did the job!

--
Kev