Removing Old Olives

[pt44]

Hi

1st post - so be nice to me

I often have to remove old olives - and keep thinking to myself - there must be an easier way to do this? Is there any kind of special tool on the market or maybe a technique that I haven't thought of?

Currently I use the following method. Not very technical - but I'm no pro.

Bash the back of the nut against the olive - using an adjustable wrench around the pipe. If the olive is fairly new - this tends to remove them. However, if they are old and have been squeezed too hard - they don't budge. So my next step is usually to cut the pipe shorter and make good by adding a new section of pipe. This works, but often there is not much room for manoeuvre, so wondered is there is a better way?

Paul

 

[ajs heating]

buy an olive puller.
example.

[DLMURL]http://www.monument-tools.com/images2006/prodlistimages/olive_puller_2036t.jpg[/DLMURL]

their is a few different types of puller.
or you can cut the olive with a junior hacksaw but be careful not to cut the pipe.

if the olive is squashing into the pipe the it may be best to fit a new section as a new olive won't seal if the pipe is to damaged.

 

[uug197h]

Monument 2030B Olive Removing Tool 15mm - 2030B - MON2030 - Monument Other Accessories
these are ok but you would need two 22mm and 15 mm

 

[Alanka]

I have a dual-size olive puller (15/22 mm) that is useful, from Monument I believe. Not cheap, but much cheaper than buying one of each size. ([DLMURL="http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.toolstation.com%2Fsearch.html%3Fsearchstr%3Dolive%2Bpuller%26Search%3D1"]Toolstation[/DLMURL] for £15.60 inc VAT)

An alternative (useful if you can't access the olive with the above puller) is an olive cutter. I've got two of those -- 15 and 22 mm -- also from Monument I think. ([DLMURL="http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.toolstation.com%2Fsearch.html%3Fsearchstr%3Dolive%2Bremoving%2Btool"]Toolstation[/DLMURL]). Not cheap at nearly £24 each!

But sometimes none of these tools work, and you end up hacking it off with a junior hacksaw anyway!

 

[pt44]

Thanks for the excellent replies.

So I presume that the with the removal tools, you clamp them on and twist them back and forth - and they cut the olive somehow? Is that correct? Is it easy to use, without damaging the pipe?

I think I understand the hacksaw technique. I've watched my dad do it many times, but not tried it myself for fear of cutting the copper. Which with my clumsiness is very likely.

The puller tool looks neat - but presumably only works if they are not too bedded in. Plus, if I have to buy a removal tool, then that would cover both aspects? Or does the puller manage to remove a good percentage of them without the need to cut them?

Paul

 

[ajs heating]

[DLMURL]http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/redirector.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.monument-tools.com%2Fimages2006%2Fprodlistimages%2Folive_puller_2036t.jpg[/DLMURL]

i always use this one never failed me yet unless the olive you are removing has an old imperial nut behind it.
or mot valve nuts which are a different thread

 

[plumbster]

if you tap the olive as you rotate it will eventually loosen up and come off

 

[stevetheplumber]

7 inch footprints will twist most olives of its a knack knowing how hard to grip but youll get the hang of it with practice
if this doesnt work its out with the junior and a diagonal cut across the olive trick is to cut almost through and twist apart with a thin screwdriver with a brass olive you can feel when you touch the pipe and you have to follow the curve of the olive to get the right depth of cut across the width of the olive harder to explain than it is to do
while were talking olives does any one else find the copper ones far supierior to brass?

 

[fatoftheland]

Hacksaw halfway through the olive at as close to 90 degrees as possible (it will work at 45 degrees but you need to cut deeper) Then used a large but sharp flat bladed screwdriver insert into the cut slot and twist the screwdriver. The olive parts and can be removed easily. Quick and no damage to the pipe

Sorry I should have read Stevetheplumbers answer, he is spot on

 

[JmacPlumbing]

Good thread already running about this..


http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/plumbing-tools/1828-monument-olive-splitter.html

 

[Alanka]

Just to add more grist to the mill -- I've discovered a neat new olive cutter on the market that works well for most situations (there's rarely one method that's good in every case!).

It's sold by Rothenberger, and it works rather like a nut splitter, with a 'guillotine' blade that you screw down onto the olive till it parts. The blade is designed to not penetrate the copper pipe, however much you try to tighten it. An 'anvil' sits inside the end of the pipe for the blade to work against, and here's the good bit -- it works with any size pipe from 15mm upwards, and is very compact, so will work in most tight corners.

 

[Jay_1981]

used a cutter once during training, they work by using two sharp blades to cut into the olive without damaging the pipe, honestly though save yourself the money and weight in your box and just use a junior hacksaw, have about 3 or 4 practices on a length of pipe and you should be good to go.

 

[Mike Jackson]

There speaks someone who doesn't have to remove many olives. The time saved using olive cutters is well worth the cost and weight. Perhaps you could save the cost of a power drill and use rawl drills instead.

Mike

 

[Jay_1981]

I remove plenty of olives but I am not a kit freak, if something works whats the problem with that, personal preference is a low profile hacksaw, and short of the occasional couple of scratches on the pipe and the odd nicked finger once in a blue moon I have NEVER damaged a pipe with this method I works fine for me. If I was removing 8+ a day then yes deffo worth it but other wise dont see the need to carry yet more crap in the van

 

[Mike Jackson]

I've never damaged a pipe removing an olive with a hacksaw but I've taken plenty of olives off where access is severely restricted. Before I had the olive cutters it would mean struggling to cut it with an inch of blade whereas now it's one snip and the olive's off. There's also much less chance of personal injury with the olive cutter.

Mike

 

[GPS164]

I have to agree with mike on this one....access can be difficult and time is money...buy the tool once, look after it and you will be removing the little buggers wth ease for years to come.

 

[unguided1]

I bumped into the lady rothernberger rep today at grahams in oxford I told her if she could sell me her olive cutter I would let her kiss me. I still havent got either yet

 

[Bernie2]

In the cave man days of the last century, there was no such thing as olive pullers. Except in Italy and then it was for the olives you eat not those you put on pipe's.

Most used olives though are knackered and often dented into the pipe itself if superman had been about tightening the back nuts, thinking the tighter they are the less likely they are to leak, not true over tightening usually makes them leak.

We called olives "rings" using the word "olive" for a ring was seen as a sign of a DIY guy not a plumber. If I remember right, its because I think in the Conex compression catalogue they a called "olives" "rings" and a DIY was thought not to read Conex catalogues, which many plumbers did to find the catalogue number of the fittings.

So we would use a combination of tricks to get the olive, i.e. spanner behind back nut and knock the olive off, hacksaw as already explained, piece of wood and tap the olive downward with it.

Surprising as it may seem a piece of wood often worked the best, while it didn't look as though it would. It didn't leave all them scrape marks from the spanner or footies on the pipe either. Its a bit of a knack to it of course, and some guys could get nearly any olive off with one or two knocks.

We would often also look for replacement olives made of copper or soft brass, of the same size of course, simply because they would squash down easier onto an out of true pipe end.

The old Honeywell three port valves had olives/rings in them so hard, you needed a pair of Stilsons to tighten them up, to stop them from leaking.

The modern olive pullers, seem okay I have never tried them though, usually spent the cash on something else.

 

[scurge]

check out monument they do olive cutters and pullers i prefer the cutters to be honest and they available in 8 and 10 mm too whereas the pullers usually come in 15-22mm and its usually possible to take a 22 off with a grips becuase they dont compress so much unless a gorrillas put them on making it redundant !!!

 

[feltham]

hi i used to struggle gettin them off too but i bought a olive removing tool in 15mm and 22mm .these are about £25 each aprox i did have a olive puller but they are just hard work

 

[heatman]

Monument 2030B Olive Removing Tool 15mm

is worth every penny spent on it !
these have come in very handy when having to change radiator valves to thermostatic valves when the thread is not the same on the nut.
i have used bungs on f+e tank and black-dust-bin-bag wrapped behind valve and pipe to catch water and with quick action cut-remove-put on new valve! saves so much time refilling system

 

[pt44]

Just to complete my initial post - don't know whether I ever mentioned that I did buy a Monument Removal tool. And I find it superb. Has worked flawlessley every time I've needed it. So thank you to the forum.

My dad always uses the hacksaw method. But being a clumsy sod, knowing my luck I would cut the pipe in half. So I'll stick with the removal tool, till I find an olive it cannot remove.

Paul

 

[Alanka]

The olive cutter/splitter from Rothenberger I mentioned above really does work far better than the ones from Monument, which quite often don't actually do the job! They sometimes only partially cut one side of the olive, and can cut into the pipe itself, leaving it more difficult to seal onto with the new olive.

Another problem with the Monument cutters (apart from needing one cutter for 15 and one for 22mm) is that the handles open so wide you can barely get a good grip on them and the leverage is rather poor, especially for the harder brass olives. All in all they are a poorly-designed tool, in my view.

 

[Carl86]

Im considering that rothenberger one myself, used the monument ones before and on certain olives did the job great like its supposed to but I found they had a tendancy to stuggle with others nicking the pipe despite the cutter being held square to the pipe.

Certain cases the olives were that hard to remove I ended up using the junior hacksaw anyway.

 

[drmartins]

I am no expert but I did successfully remove a couple of old stuck olives by heating the olive with a blowtorch as locally and quickly as possible and then carefully pullling/sliding it off with pliers from behind. You need to be careful to catch the hot olive! Maybe not the best solution from a Health & Safety perspective.

 

[Mike Jackson]

I was looking at buying the Rothenberger one until yesterday when my manager turned up and presented me with one. I was made up with it. The monument cutters are coming out of my toolbox to live in the van as an emergency back up. I may stroke them now and again to satisfy my tool fetish but I'll be using the rothenberger cutter most of the time.

Mike

 

[bcp]

Rothenberger - best of the bunch.