I've been fitting some pipe this weekend using pre-soldered joints, and out of the 20 I fitted I have one that is leaking (a crossover). It's in a tight spot and I'm wondering if it would be possible to fix without separating the joint.
The reason I don't want to separate it is that I'm concerned about putting strain on the other soldered joints nearby (which aren't leaking).
If I just cleaned the joint as it is, applied flux and solder is that likely to fix it? Will solder get inside the joint and seal it, even though I've only got the flux around the outside of it?
All the advice I've found so far is to heat the joint and separate it, then allow to cool, clean, apply flux, resolder.
One other issue is that because I bought pre-soldered joints I didn't buy any actual solder, and I can't find any shop that sells this in small rolls - I'd have to buy far more than I need! Also, I've only ever soldered pre-soldered joints (for the first time this weekend), is soldering joints with actual solder easy to get right the first time? I already have spare pre-soldered crossovers and straight couplers, so I could just cut the leaking crossover out and put in a new one - but this would mean adding straight couplers either side - so yet more potential leak points.
The reason I don't want to separate it is that I'm concerned about putting strain on the other soldered joints nearby (which aren't leaking).
If I just cleaned the joint as it is, applied flux and solder is that likely to fix it? Will solder get inside the joint and seal it, even though I've only got the flux around the outside of it?
All the advice I've found so far is to heat the joint and separate it, then allow to cool, clean, apply flux, resolder.
One other issue is that because I bought pre-soldered joints I didn't buy any actual solder, and I can't find any shop that sells this in small rolls - I'd have to buy far more than I need! Also, I've only ever soldered pre-soldered joints (for the first time this weekend), is soldering joints with actual solder easy to get right the first time? I already have spare pre-soldered crossovers and straight couplers, so I could just cut the leaking crossover out and put in a new one - but this would mean adding straight couplers either side - so yet more potential leak points.