That was the problem facing me earlier today. Needed to replace a 15mm
pipe coming off a tee. Problem was that it was below the lowest drain
point on the water circuit, so I knew the pipe had water in it that
would most likely cause problems when applying a blowtorch.

Solved the problem after sleeping on it overnight. I'm passing the
following on in case it might be useful to someone else one of these
days.

I drained the pipework as far as I could, leaving a few feet of 15mm
containing water - with the tee midway along.

Then connected up my Acquvac vacuum cleaner configured in wet mode,
stuck the hose on the tap on the end of the circuit, opened the tap at
the other end of the pipework, and sucked the water out.

Within a couple of minutes I had nearly-dry pipework which allowed me
to break and remake the 15mm solder tee without problems.

I suppose a complete job would have seen me put a drain valve on this
pipework for good measure. Didn't bother - now that I know my trusty
Aquavac can do the business I don't need the drain valve

PoP

"PoP" wrote in message
...
That was the problem facing me earlier today. Needed to replace a 15mm
pipe coming off a tee. Problem was that it was below the lowest drain
point on the water circuit, so I knew the pipe had water in it that
would most likely cause problems when applying a blowtorch.

Solved the problem after sleeping on it overnight. I'm passing the
following on in case it might be useful to someone else one of these
days.

I drained the pipework as far as I could, leaving a few feet of 15mm
containing water - with the tee midway along.

Then connected up my Acquvac vacuum cleaner configured in wet mode,
stuck the hose on the tap on the end of the circuit, opened the tap at
the other end of the pipework, and sucked the water out.

Within a couple of minutes I had nearly-dry pipework which allowed me
to break and remake the 15mm solder tee without problems.

I suppose a complete job would have seen me put a drain valve on this
pipework for good measure. Didn't bother - now that I know my trusty
Aquavac can do the business I don't need the drain valve

PoP


Opening a tap and blowing through it, can do the same job, and it saves all
the hassle of buying an aquavac.


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On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 17:57:15 GMT, "BigWallop"
wrote:

Opening a tap and blowing through it, can do the same job, and it saves all
the hassle of buying an aquavac.

Tried that. Unfortunately it didn't work too well

PoP

"PoP" wrote in message
...
That was the problem facing me earlier today. Needed to replace a 15mm
pipe coming off a tee. Problem was that it was below the lowest drain
point on the water circuit, so I knew the pipe had water in it that
would most likely cause problems when applying a blowtorch.

Solved the problem after sleeping on it overnight. I'm passing the
following on in case it might be useful to someone else one of these
days.

I drained the pipework as far as I could, leaving a few feet of 15mm
containing water - with the tee midway along.

Then connected up my Acquvac vacuum cleaner configured in wet mode,
stuck the hose on the tap on the end of the circuit, opened the tap at
the other end of the pipework, and sucked the water out.

Within a couple of minutes I had nearly-dry pipework which allowed me
to break and remake the 15mm solder tee without problems.




The 'Pro' answer would be to use a pipe freezer kit .... these will hold
back water up stream, the soldering will boil it off where you are working.

Rick

On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 20:54:39 +0000 (UTC), "Rick Hughes"
wrote:

The 'Pro' answer would be to use a pipe freezer kit .... these will hold
back water up stream, the soldering will boil it off where you are working.

Possibly. Only there was a problem with taking that approach. The tee
was about centrally placed in the pipework - and on one side the pipe
disappeared through a hole in the brickwork, without there being any
access to the remote side. And the distance between the tee and the
wall would have made the freeze too close to the flamethrower.

PoP

If you were replacing the pipe why not just cut the pipe and drain water
into towel , bucket or something similar

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 09:22:14 +0000 (UTC), "Alex"
wrote:

If you were replacing the pipe why not just cut the pipe and drain water
into towel , bucket or something similar

I was replacing just one section of the tee - the pipe that branches
off - the straight through pipe was being left in-situ.

I did think about replacing the tee and pipework, but unfortunately
the main feed coming in (which is the bit I would have had to cut) had
only a couple of inches before it disappeared into the brickwork, and
being low down gave no room to be able to swing a hacksaw. Couldn't
possibly get a pipe cutter in the space available so it was do-or-die
with the 15mm tee.

PoP

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 12:49:34 +0100, PoP
wrote:

Couldn't
possibly get a pipe cutter in the space available so it was do-or-die
with the 15mm tee.

There's another trick for situations like this, I picked up here in
uk.d-i-y AFAIK: Shove a bit of bread in the pipe. This is supposed to
seal the pipe and soak up any water for long enough to solder the
joint, and the dissolve as you flush the system. Never tried it...

Thomas Prufer

PoP wrote in message . ..
That was the problem facing me earlier today. Needed to replace a 15mm
pipe coming off a tee. Problem was that it was below the lowest drain
point on the water circuit, so I knew the pipe had water in it that
would most likely cause problems when applying a blowtorch.


Never tried it myself, but allegedly this can also be solved by
stuffing the open end of the pipe with bread; you then have until the
bread plug becomes saturated to complete your soldering. When you
turn the water on again, the bread disintegrates and comes out the tap
or next junction in the pipework.

David

On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 18:27:40 GMT, (Simon
Avery) wrote:

Or the Faq still has the "Bread trick", I think?

Whilst I can see the bread trick could work, it wouldn't have done for
me. Reason being that there was something like an 18in head of water
above the tee which I wanted to unsolder - that would be a lot of
bread, and no way could I get this down past the tee anyway.

Sucking the water out with an Aquavac did the business on this
occasion. I think I got about a pint and a half out of the pipe using
that trick.

PoP

PoP wrote:

Hello PoP

P| That was the problem facing me earlier today. Needed to
P| replace a 15mm pipe coming off a tee. Problem was that it
P| was below the lowest drain point on the water circuit, so I
P| knew the pipe had water in it that would most likely cause
P| problems when applying a blowtorch.
P| Solved the problem after sleeping on it overnight. I'm
P| passing the following on in case it might be useful to
P| someone else one of these days.

Or the Faq still has the "Bread trick", I think?

--
Simon Avery, Dartmoor, UK
uk.d-i-y FAQ: http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/

On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 19:11:11 +0100, PoP
wrote:

On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 18:27:40 GMT, (Simon
Avery) wrote:

Or the Faq still has the "Bread trick", I think?

Whilst I can see the bread trick could work, it wouldn't have done for
me. Reason being that there was something like an 18in head of water
above the tee which I wanted to unsolder - that would be a lot of
bread, and no way could I get this down past the tee anyway.

Sucking the water out with an Aquavac did the business on this
occasion. I think I got about a pint and a half out of the pipe using
that trick.

The simple solution is to bung the vent and feed pipes in the attic, or
wherever (see elsewhere for details) and cut the pipe, catching the 1/2 pint
or so that flows out into a container. An automatic pipe cutter will cut a
pipe within an inch of a parallel wall, and is less that a tenner. You then
might need a straight coupler to repair the cut pipe - less than 75p.

--
Phil Addison
The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/
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On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 20:54:30 GMT, "Phil Addison"
wrote:

The simple solution is to bung the vent and feed pipes in the attic, or
wherever (see elsewhere for details) and cut the pipe, catching the 1/2 pint
or so that flows out into a container. An automatic pipe cutter will cut a
pipe within an inch of a parallel wall, and is less that a tenner. You then
might need a straight coupler to repair the cut pipe - less than 75p.

It's still a good trick. I've used an injector pump to do the same
thing. (Or whatever they're called: one of those things that attaches
to a mains water outlet and sucks when you turn on the water. Jet of
water entrains the air, and "pulls" it out). Found in waterbed stores,
nonelectric, cheap, fine dirt and sludge don't bother it.

It'll also pull a lot more head than a wet-n-dry, so beware crushing
something.


Thomas Prufer