A Small Rant About Compression Fittings

[oldbutnotdead]

Poxy things. Mixture of old and new tube and fittings. A brand new 22 on fresh clean tube took gorilla torque to slow the leak down, in the end had to resort to Boss White and PTFE to stop the rapid drip.
Then I get another slow drip- another new fitting on a bit of old tube. Quickly found it was only finger-tight, half a turn and dry. Grrr.
Rant over

 

[footprints]

Cheap and nasty "brass" olives too hard to crimp, I often ditch them in the scrap bag and fit copper.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Should have mentioned copper olives. I'm the same as you, the brass ones go straight in the scrap bucket.

 

[ianmcd]

I find fittings these days are very poor quality, especially from Screwfix and the like

 

[oldbutnotdead]

That is a valid point, the one needing gorilla torque was from TS, the other one had been in the bits box for many years....

 

[Deleted member 267285]

I’m opposite, I prefer brass olives to copper, I usually find they leak all too often, swap for a brass olive and it’s fine. Conex still good, they used to be?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

I've got a few ancient ones (one i've just recycled funnily enough and that went on no problem). Not bought any for years

 

[dontbelieveawordofit]

Poxy things. Mixture of old and new tube and fittings. A brand new 22 on fresh clean tube took gorilla torque to slow the leak down, in the end had to resort to Boss White and PTFE to stop the rapid drip.
Then I get another slow drip- another new fitting on a bit of old tube. Quickly found it was only finger-tight, half a turn and dry. Grrr.
Rant over

maybe your over tightening from the start

 

[oldbutnotdead]

maybe your over tightening from the start

Used to do that, nowadays its finger tight plus half a turn to start with, get the big spanners out if it leaks on test.

 

[dontbelieveawordofit]

i use fernox jointing paste on every one.
small bit on the threads and a smear around the olive.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

That may be the key, I used to chuck boss white and ptfe at them til getting told if they're done right you don't need all that. Currently I've got 3 or 4 where for whatever reason the joint isn't perfect so have chucked gunk at them, the rest are clean.

 

[bernardgreen]

Probably totally wrong but I find a bit of Vaseline used to lubricate the olive makes compression joints much easier to tighten. None of the "creaky" sounds as the nut crunches down onto the olive.

( other brands of petroleum jelly are available )

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Probably totally wrong but I find a bit of Vaseline used to lubricate the olive makes compression joints much easier to tighten. None of the "creaky" sounds as the nut crunches down onto the olive.

( other brands of petroleum jelly are available )

And a fine excuse for having a pot of starters in the van

 

[Deleted member 267285]

Probably totally wrong but I find a bit of Vaseline used to lubricate the olive makes compression joints much easier to tighten. None of the "creaky" sounds as the nut crunches down onto the olive.

( other brands of petroleum jelly are available )

If it’s not wras approved or suitable for potable water then it’s wrong for potable water might be ok on a heating system or other non potable water. Wouldn’t entertain it for gas.

 

[Nige F]

The old fine thread Prestex can be a nightmare ! I just recently changed my main stopcock - 1/2" prestex ( fine thread c.1960) about 1" off the floor connected to soft copper coming in - Luckily I spotted some old fittings on a "auction site" and away I went