Joining stainless pipe

[Neil82]

Hello everyone. First off this forum is so helpful loads of info on here.
Anyway to my question. My house built in the 1970's during the copper shortage has been fully plumbed in 22mm stainless.

Now I have just removed it all and done away with the storage tank so the house is all on mains water. But the main stop valve is still attached to stainless and has a strange fitting that dose not use a olive so can't fit direct to this with copper pipe.

I removed the pipe and cut it short so I could put a compression fitting on and then run new copper pipes from this point on but I can't get a good seal. It always weeps from the compression fitting where it's attached to the stainless steel pipe.

If I can't sort this the only other thing I can think of doing is shutting off the water at the street valve and remove the final bit of stainless and fit a new stop valve on to the incoming copper below.

Can anyone advise me on how to seal a compression fitting to stainless.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Hhmmm. I wonder if this old stuff would take a crimping tool.?

 

[Neil82]

What do you mean by crimping tool?
Only crimps I know about are for electrical connections. ( that's my trade ) not use to this pluming business.

 

[footprints]

Have you tried a copper olive and some Fernox LSX?
Oh! and a bit of brute force to crunch the olive really tight!

 

[Dan Robinson]

Pressfit.

Crunches special firings into pipe. Copper, Low Carbon Steel and Stainless are all catered for.

What I don't know is if you can use it on that old stuff.

 

[willsgas]

You could use a philmac fittng, they are a bit bulky but get the job done.

 

[Richardthe3rd]

Hello everyone. First off this forum is so helpful loads of info on here.
Anyway to my question. My house built in the 1970's during the copper shortage has been fully plumbed in 22mm stainless.

Now I have just removed it all and done away with the storage tank so the house is all on mains water. But the main stop valve is still attached to stainless and has a strange fitting that dose not use a olive so can't fit direct to this with copper pipe.

I removed the pipe and cut it short so I could put a compression fitting on and then run new copper pipes from this point on but I can't get a good seal. It always weeps from the compression fitting where it's attached to the stainless steel pipe.

If I can't sort this the only other thing I can think of doing is shutting off the water at the street valve and remove the final bit of stainless and fit a new stop valve on to the incoming copper below.

Can anyone advise me on how to seal a compression fitting to stainless.

Ah I remember it well!! I was an apprentice at the time. 15&22mm SS tube was as hard as a whore's heart to bend, though we were told it could be soldered, we never ever tried & just used type A compression fittings.

Even in the 70s it was common for incoming mains water supplies to be done in 3/4" black alkathene, which should be coming through your ground floor?

A photo of the stopcock.ck would help.....

 

[Richardthe3rd]

You could use a philmac fittng, they are a bit bulky but get the job done.

There's a chance that would blow off mate, I wouldn't risk it in the house.

 

[Richardthe3rd]

Pressfit.

Crunches special firings into pipe. Copper, Low Carbon Steel and Stainless are all catered for.

What I don't know is if you can use it on that old stuff.

I guess it depends on the condition of the pipe Dan, but that's a bit OTT just for a bit of stainless. A compression fitting done up the right way will be fine.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Yes, I did wonder about compression, but was distracted by the F1 qualifying - Hamilton is such a tit.

 

[Neil82]

Hello everyone. First off this forum is so helpful loads of info on here.
Anyway to my question. My house built in the 1970's during the copper shortage has been fully plumbed in 22mm stainless.

Now I have just removed it all and done away with the storage tank so the house is all on mains water. But the main stop valve is still attached to stainless and has a strange fitting that dose not use a olive so can't fit direct to this with copper pipe.

I removed the pipe and cut it short so I could put a compression fitting on and then run new copper pipes from this point on but I can't get a good seal. It always weeps from the compression fitting where it's attached to the stainless steel pipe.

If I can't sort this the only other thing I can think of doing is shutting off the water at the street valve and remove the final bit of stainless and fit a new stop valve on to the incoming copper below.

Can anyone advise me on how to seal a compression fitting to stainless.

Ah I remember it well!! I was an apprentice at the time. 15&22mm SS tube was as hard as a whore's heart to bend, though we were told it could be soldered, we never ever tried & just used type A compression fittings.

Even in the 70s it was common for incoming mains water supplies to be done in 3/4" black alkathene, which should be coming through your ground floor?

A photo of the stopcock.ck would help.....

I'll take a snap shot of the stopcock when I am back over at the house today.
The mains inn defo looks like copper it's covered in green oxidisation.

I would rather not use any sealant because I feel that's a bit of a bodge. I could be being totally stupid thinking that tho.

 

[Richardthe3rd]

You may have a Securex stopc.ck then Neil (type B compression fitting).
I'll await your photo to confirm.

 

[Neil82]

Evening people.

This is a pic of the stopcock and one of a random joint.