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#1
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Old Copper Pipes
In article ,
hibb wrote: Ooops forgot the link to the picture. This picture is posted through "yousendit dot com" instead of FileAve that I used before that caused some folks some concern about malware. http://tinyurl.com/248evr8 Thanks, David If that is just green discoloration on the surface of copper pipe, I would not replace them. They have many years of life left. -- There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong." (H L Mencken) Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar. org |
#2
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Old Copper Pipes
On Sep 21, 4:14*pm, (Larry W) wrote:
In article ,hibb wrote: Ooops forgot the link to the picture. This picture is posted through "yousendit dot com" instead of FileAve that I used before that caused some folks some concern about malware. http://tinyurl.com/248evr8 Thanks, David If that is just green discoloration on the surface of copper pipe, I would not replace them. They have many years of life left. -- * * There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, * * plausible, and wrong." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *(H L Mencken) * * *Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar. org I didn't notice any soft spots that wanted to kink when I was pulling them to the side to get to other things. I was asking because these will be under the tub far enough that they will be hard to get to if something happens. This is an upstairs bathroom. but it won't be used much and I might even turn the water off to the upstairs most of the time. Thanks, David |
#3
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Old Copper Pipes
hibb wrote the following:
On Sep 21, 4:14 pm, (Larry W) wrote: In article ,hibb wrote: Ooops forgot the link to the picture. This picture is posted through "yousendit dot com" instead of FileAve that I used before that caused some folks some concern about malware. http://tinyurl.com/248evr8 Thanks, David If that is just green discoloration on the surface of copper pipe, I would not replace them. They have many years of life left. -- There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong." (H L Mencken) Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar. org I didn't notice any soft spots that wanted to kink when I was pulling them to the side to get to other things. The green color is the natural patina of copper. If it was a sign of trouble, the Statue of Liberty would need a new skin less than every hundred years. I was asking because these will be under the tub far enough that they will be hard to get to if something happens. This is an upstairs bathroom. but it won't be used much and I might even turn the water off to the upstairs most of the time. Thanks, David -- Bill In Hamptonburgh, NY In the original Orange County. Est. 1683 To email, remove the double zeroes after @ |
#4
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Old Copper Pipes
On Sep 21, 6:28*pm, hibb wrote:
On Sep 21, 4:14*pm, (Larry W) wrote: In article ,hibb wrote: Ooops forgot the link to the picture. This picture is posted through "yousendit dot com" instead of FileAve that I used before that caused some folks some concern about malware. http://tinyurl.com/248evr8 Thanks, David If that is just green discoloration on the surface of copper pipe, I would not replace them. They have many years of life left. -- * * There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, * * plausible, and wrong." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *(H L Mencken) * * *Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar. org *I didn't notice any soft spots that wanted to kink when I was pulling them to the side to get to other things. I was asking because these will be under the tub far enough that they will be hard to get to if something happens. This is an upstairs bathroom. but it won't be used much and I might even turn the water off to the upstairs most of the time. Thanks, David Thanks for posting the picture on a normal hosting site. In such situations, where something won't be accessible after the work is completed, and getting to it for a repair would be problematic, the thing turns into a Wallya. Wallya at it, might as well replace those pipes. Copper corrodes from the inside out, and as someone else mentioned, the first signs of a problem is some green patina spots showing up, usually near the joints where someone was liberal with the flux. So, I have to disagree with Bill's assesment. If the patina is more or less uniform on the pipe, fine, but if there are localized green spots with white stuff around, then that's a bad sign. The pipe has corroded from the inside and the change in patina somehow indicates thinner material where the pipe has eroded. This seems to happen more in fittings and probably has to do with turbulent flow or some such and/or excess flux. Sharkbite fittings work great, and they are rated for burial in slabs, but I don't know if they'd be my first choice if you're going with copper pipe. I don't doubt the Sharkbite fittings would work, but I just like the purity of copper with copper. If you're transitioning to PEX the Sharkbites make it trivial - one of their best points. You can work with copper, PVC or PEX with the same fitting, which makes them indispensable in the repair kit. If you are concerned about them being buried for a long while over occupied space below, run an air pressure test. Hook up a fitting and pump it up to double your house pressure and let it sit overnight to see if the air pressure is dropping. If it holds at double the pressure, it's unlikely you'd ever have a problem. They probably would be fine, they seem very well made and they work better than the competition that I've tried, such as the Zurn plastic stuff. Pretty funny, eh? I have no problem with PEX supply piping, but plastic fittings give me the heebie jeebies. I have had issues with the Zurn fittings before, so I just stopped using them. R |
#5
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Old Copper Pipes
On 9/21/2010 7:32 PM, RicodJour wrote:
On Sep 21, 6:28 pm, wrote: On Sep 21, 4:14 pm, (Larry W) wrote: In ,hibbShy wrote: Ooops forgot the link to the picture. This picture is posted through "yousendit dot com" instead of FileAve that I used before that caused some folks some concern about malware. http://tinyurl.com/248evr8 Thanks, David If that is just green discoloration on the surface of copper pipe, I would not replace them. They have many years of life left. -- There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong." (H L Mencken) Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar. org I didn't notice any soft spots that wanted to kink when I was pulling them to the side to get to other things. I was asking because these will be under the tub far enough that they will be hard to get to if something happens. This is an upstairs bathroom. but it won't be used much and I might even turn the water off to the upstairs most of the time. Thanks, David Thanks for posting the picture on a normal hosting site. In such situations, where something won't be accessible after the work is completed, and getting to it for a repair would be problematic, the thing turns into a Wallya. Wallya at it, might as well replace those pipes. Copper corrodes from the inside out, and as someone else mentioned, the first signs of a problem is some green patina spots showing up, usually near the joints where someone was liberal with the flux. So, I have to disagree with Bill's assesment. If the patina is more or less uniform on the pipe, fine, but if there are localized green spots with white stuff around, then that's a bad sign. The pipe has corroded from the inside and the change in patina somehow indicates thinner material where the pipe has eroded. This seems to happen more in fittings and probably has to do with turbulent flow or some such and/or excess flux. Sharkbite fittings work great, and they are rated for burial in slabs, but I don't know if they'd be my first choice if you're going with copper pipe. I don't doubt the Sharkbite fittings would work, but I just like the purity of copper with copper. If you're transitioning to PEX the Sharkbites make it trivial - one of their best points. You can work with copper, PVC or PEX with the same fitting, which makes them indispensable in the repair kit. If you are concerned about them being buried for a long while over occupied space below, run an air pressure test. Hook up a fitting and pump it up to double your house pressure and let it sit overnight to see if the air pressure is dropping. If it holds at double the pressure, it's unlikely you'd ever have a problem. They probably would be fine, they seem very well made and they work better than the competition that I've tried, such as the Zurn plastic stuff. Pretty funny, eh? I have no problem with PEX supply piping, but plastic fittings give me the heebie jeebies. I have had issues with the Zurn fittings before, so I just stopped using them. R it's been my experience that these soft copper runs to things in older houses are rarely 5/8" OD. And that's the only way a sharkbite is gonna be an option. He might just as well go back to a known good point and either sweat on or flare fitting to a pipe thread and use a proper adaptor to the material he wishes to use. -- Steve Barker remove the "not" from my address to email |
#6
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Old Copper Pipes
On Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:07:09 -0400, willshak
wrote: hibb wrote the following: On Sep 21, 4:14 pm, (Larry W) wrote: In article ,hibb wrote: Ooops forgot the link to the picture. This picture is posted through "yousendit dot com" instead of FileAve that I used before that caused some folks some concern about malware. http://tinyurl.com/248evr8 Thanks, David If that is just green discoloration on the surface of copper pipe, I would not replace them. They have many years of life left. -- There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong." (H L Mencken) Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar. org I didn't notice any soft spots that wanted to kink when I was pulling them to the side to get to other things. The green color is the natural patina of copper. If it was a sign of trouble, the Statue of Liberty would need a new skin less than every hundred years. I was asking because these will be under the tub far enough that they will be hard to get to if something happens. This is an upstairs bathroom. but it won't be used much and I might even turn the water off to the upstairs most of the time. Thanks, David What about the pipe at the bottom of the picture, below the cast iron pipe? And I'd be closely checking the quality/condition of the cast iron pipe too. I've seen too many "weep" and let go. Many insurance companies are not covering cast iron drainpipe any more on new policies for that reason. |
#7
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Old Copper Pipes
On Sep 21, 8:54*pm, Steve Barker wrote:
it's been my experience that these soft copper runs to things in older houses are rarely 5/8" OD. *And that's the only way a sharkbite is gonna be an option. *He might just as well go back to a known good point and either sweat on or flare fitting to a pipe thread and use a proper adaptor to the material he wishes to use. Yes, of course - if the pipe is not standard, he has little choice. R |
#8
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Old Copper Pipes
On Sep 21, 9:40*pm, RicodJour wrote:
On Sep 21, 8:54*pm, Steve Barker wrote: it's been my experience that these soft copper runs to things in older houses are rarely 5/8" OD. *And that's the only way a sharkbite is gonna be an option. *He might just as well go back to a known good point and either sweat on or flare fitting to a pipe thread and use a proper adaptor to the material he wishes to use. Yes, of course - if the pipe is not standard, he has little choice. R I've already used the sharkbite stuff to replace the runs over to the sink and the stool. I replaced those lines because the original did not have shut off valves anywhere except in the basement. Thanks, David |
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