Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

[johnnyplumb]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Always charge the customer for absolutely everything, & i mean everything.
some customers will waste your time by asking alot of dumb & stupid questions, you dont have to accept this sort of thing.

the other day, someone phoned me and asked, How much do you charge ?, i said to him, i charge £300 to answer 3 questions, he said to me, That's abit steep isn't it ?, so i said yes it is, And what's your 3rd question ?


you need to be absolutely ruthless in this game, dont let the brass-tards walk all over you.

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

How to repair a leaking Essex flange

For some reason, Essex flanges come with pathetic rubber washers which seem designed to perish after about 5 years.

I come across this quite a bit and have developed a technique for repairing them.

Firstly drain down the cylinder to below the level of the flange, and gripping the tail of the flange, unscrew the nut about 10mm and clean out the remains of the perished washers and the exposed thread so the nut can screw freely backwards and forwards.

Take some lengths of hemp and paste them up with Boss White or Hawk White. Screw the nut back on so that the flat washer is about 3mm off the face of the cylinder and disconnect any pipework to it so you can get your hand round it.

Centralise the flange in the hole and wrap the hemp tightly around the flange between the cylinder and the flat washer. Try to push the wound hemp along the thread into the cylinder using the flat washer, build up so you have filled the entire space between the cylinder and washer and have excess hemp wound past the washer.

Carefully hold the end of the Essex Flange with grips and with a large spanner wind the nut back tightly onto the cylinder to compress the hemp and paste as tightly as it will go. It needs to be VERY tight.

Reassemble, fill with water and allow water to heat up. Occasionally you may need to repeat the process again if you are slightly off-centre in the hole.

Once the hemp and paste has set, you've got no chance of redoing the joint without cutting it out and using a new Essex flange.

I tend to assemble new Essex flanges this way instead of using the washers that come with them.

A similar technique can be employed for repairing leaking coil connections on a cylinder.

 

[SafeGasInstall]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

will a roll of ptfe not do the job ? never had to repair one so that is why I am asking

 

[kay-jay]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

sounds like it would be easier to just replace it tbh

 

[ne1ls0n]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

isent boss white heating systems only>?

 

[stevetheplumber]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

isent boss white heating systems only>?

not for use on potable water but then who drinks hot water

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

PTFE won't work as you wouldn't be able to get it tight enough, and hemp and paste seals better. Hot water systems are classed as non-potable.

It's actually not that hard to do it the way I have described. You could replace the washer as Kay-Jay suggests but I consider hemp and paste a better means of permanently sealing it.

In the past when I haven't had an Essex flange handy, I have on occasion simply soldered a tank outlet connector onto the cylinder and if soldered properly it'll never come off.

 

[Mike Jackson]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

not for use on potable water but then who drinks hot water

Hot water is still potable, and some people do drink it.

 

[R1CKY]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

When you remove a part from a boiler, smash it to pieces! No way of mistaking it with a serviceable part!

A small piece of 15mm copper crimped at one end and a pushfit cap end at the other makes a great container for your flux brush!

 

[Whyme]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Never ever ever change an expansion vessal on a worc 35cdi unless youve got a morning to kill and dont mind completely gutting a boiler, unbelievable.

 

[tom609]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

when replacing a part on a combi and you need to drain it,once you have drained it repressurise the expansion vessel as the vessel usually is holding a little water and carrys on dribbling out

 

[Whyme]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Id like to say too any young plumbers, dont be afraid of taking on new challenges and dont get stuck in a rut doing the same thing day in day out. variety variety. do as many outlandish jobs you can and go on as many manufacturers courses as possible cos youll end up a well rounded plumber....speech over.

 

[Gmal1]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream

 

[RPG 80]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

After turning the power off on a Ultracom 2 CXi, make sure you reselect the hot water mode, as on restarting the boiler will run in heating mode only. Causing you to get recalled through 15 miles of rush hour traffic to push a button.

 

[Bunker]

When taking rads off the wall, shut both ends, undo from valve and lob a 1/2 or 3/4 compression cap onto the tail and do up. Then do other end. Voila, no need to drain in the house and can be carried out with no fear of dripping sludge.

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Don't leave bits of kit you have replaced lying around at the customer's place as it's bad practice. One local engineer I come across seems to leave debris and junk with customers and today I was presented with a shoebox of worn out oil pumps, used flexi hoses, nozzles, bust control box, broken solenoid etc. Fair enough if something still functions (such as an old nozzle, but only one), leave it there, but otherwise If you replace something faulty, show it to the customer and ask if they would like you to dispose of or recycle it for them. If they say they want to keep it, fair enough, otherwise take your junk away with you.

It is one of my main pet hates, tradesmen leaving junk for me to clear away, whether they be electricians, joiners, plumbers etc. Wire trimmings, rubble etc swept under floorboards really annoys me. I only use tradesmen for my own jobs who are tidy.

In industry for commercial work, it is an absolute no-no to leave junk on site and if you do so, the customer will take a dim view of it. Domestic is no different. There's also a potential liability risk if you leave a broken component and someone later tries it and something goes wrong, they could blame you.

On another note, as a previous post has said, make it obvious what you take off is useless by breaking it so it can't get mixed up with good stuff again. I always bend old immersion heater stats in half for example as soon as I take them out.

I worked in a printing works once. In the past, a plumber had left a short pipe offcut on a gantry which months later had accidentally been knocked off and fell into a printing press, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

 

[Whyme]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

buy a pipe flarer cos you dont always have imperial to metric fitting on.

 

[stevetheplumber]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

Compression fittings will do the job whyme

the flarer nis good for pipes that have been frozen youll not get those in a compression coupling

 

[plum ber]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

When adding inhibitor or cleaner to a system, shut off both sides drain a few litres or so then use a 15mm compression elbow in the top of the rad to pour inn your chemicals...

 

[SafeGasInstall]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

When adding inhibitor or cleaner to a system, shut off both sides drain a few litres or so then use a 15mm compression elbow in the top of the rad to pour inn your chemicals...

Male to copper elbow
also get 15 to 28 reducer and solder it to a bit of 15mm and here is your funnel

 

[SafeGasInstall]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

the flarer nis good for pipes that have been frozen youll not get those in a compression coupling

I did mean to use compression when you have imperial pipe work and want to convert to metrick Steve ! However I don't know after a pipes base been fleared how do you join them ?

 

[fogarty]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

When adding inhibitor or cleaner to a system, shut off both sides drain a few litres or so then use a 15mm compression elbow in the top of the rad to pour inn your chemicals...

To people in the know this is probably obvious but to me it's not, how does the 15mm elbow connect to the top of the rad?

 

[Whyme]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I did mean to use compression when you have imperial pipe work and want to convert to metrick Steve ! However I don't know after a pipes base been fleared how do you join them ?

i meant to solder especially where ya cant get at it again, the only prob with comp is that 3/4 to 22mm is proper baggy and needs to be tightend to death.

 

[Whyme]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

To people in the know this is probably obvious but to me it's not, how does the 15mm elbow connect to the top of the rad?

it only works on compact style rads with a 15mm bleed point/ plug you can remove Look back i posted a similar one to use a bent f/i and auto airvent body

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

i meant to solder especially where ya cant get at it again, the only prob with comp is that 3/4 to 22mm is proper baggy and needs to be tightend to death.

No No No!!!

Never use a 22mm olive on 3/4" pipe as you must use a 3/4" olive on 3/4" pipe.

If you simply try and bodge and screw up a 22mm one tight or there's a good chance it will leak or the joint won't be tight when fully screwed up.

If you want to flare the pipe, heat the pipe end until really hot and allow to cool down naturally so as to soften it and leave it less likely to split when flared.

 

[Whyme]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

No No No!!!

Never use a 22mm olive on 3/4" pipe as you must use a 3/4" olive on 3/4" pipe.

If you simply try and bodge and screw up a 22mm one tight or there's a good chance it will leak or the joint won't be tight when fully screwed up.

If you want to flare the pipe, heat the pipe end until really hot and allow to cool down naturally so as to soften it and leave it less likely to split when flared.

behave how many new plumbers keep 3/4 olives on their vans. a 22mm comp fitting will make a good seal if tightened enough and its not a bodge by any stretch of the imagination....like i said use flaring kit if you havent got end feed converters solder all the way...

 

[Mike Jackson]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

behave how many new plumbers keep 3/4 olives on their vans. a 22mm comp fitting will make a good seal if tightened enough and its not a bodge by any stretch of the imagination....like i said use flaring kit if you havent got end feed converters solder all the way...

It is a bodge. 22mm olives will not tighten properly onto 3/4 pipe. They are not designed for it, should there be a leak you will be held entirely responsible for using an inappropriate fitting. There are lots of things that new plumbers may not have on their vans but that is not an excuse for not doing the job properly. When you've turned up to a job, fitted a new boiler, fired it up and a fitting has blown off the other side of the house because it is a 22 fitting bodged onto 3/4 pipe you will know what a bodge it is.

 

[WHPES]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I always have 3/4" olives and 1" olives in my van as do my other plumber mates. A 22mm olive is a bodge. Crimp them up and there's a good chance they will crease and not seal properly or blow off - I have come across this after other "plumbers" have been on site. Exactly the same way as you don't try and solder a 22mm fitting onto 3/4" pipe but use a 22 x 3/4 reducer.

These details and others like them make the difference between a bodger and an expert.

 

[Whn1]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I always keep stock of 3/4 olives and metric to imperial end feed couplings.

 

[stevetheplumber]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

i keep a few convertor olives in the olive box tied together with a bit of solder same with the couplings saves digging through to find the right ones

 

[Dannypipe]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

I cranked up a 22mm compression fitting onto an 3/4 bit of pipe the other week as it was the discharge from an unvented. So no pressure will ever be on the joint.

I would never do it on a joint that's under pressure, as its a bodge. Adapters are pence.

 

[CXR100]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

i have some 3/4" olives and 3/4" to 22mm solder couplings along with slips couplings in an old small swarfega pot in the van , this way i never try to use them on normal 22mm pipe an think they ar faulty 22mm couplers and chuck then in the scrap box!

 

[Bunker]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

When removing rads:
(Assuming you've prepared the system appropriately and have your old towels under the valves etc)..
Have a couple of male compression caps at hand (1/2 or 3/4 dependng) and, once the rad is undone from the valve, gently separate and lob the cap in between, then do your rad-side nut up. No need to drain inside the house, no leakage, just carry outside and empty there. (obviously this will make the rad heavier so this will only work if its a smallish rad, or if there are 2 of you, or if you look like Croppie and can lift one in each hand...)

 

[mutley racers]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

When soldering and a fitting is in a tight place, heat the pipe further down from the fitting and then solder

 

[Whyme]

re: Hints, tips & secrets of plumbing - No Banter please!

If your in a pickle with a mildly scuffed rad get a small tub of white combined T cut and polish works a treat as long as its not too deep and will last you years..( disclaimer the right thing to do would be replace rad but hey ho).