Replacing valves where the water comes in

[Don & Lucille]

[Stormin Mormon]

If you try to unsweat an old valve on wet pipe, you will get a cloud of steam before the solder flows. Not necessarily a bad thing,

[Stormin Mormon]

Mapp gas is wonderful stuff. I use it for nearly everything to do with pipe soldering. Or brazing, actually. The one thing it doesn't do, is work when the tank is bitter cold.

[Stormin Mormon]

If you can find the curb shut off. And if you can find a place to buy the specialized tool, that is. It's not just a crescent wrench, after all.

[Stormin Mormon]

The lead free solder is a health thing. Daily exposure to lead in your drinking water is not a good thing to do to yourself or your family. People who consume lead tend to be a bit stupid, neglect punctuation, capitalization, and use swear words at the end of sentences.

[Stormin Mormon]

Yes, and a four or five foot long snakes tongue tool to turn the valve stem.

[Stormin Mormon]

With the advances of modern technology, we have the option of keeping our families safe from known poisons. Or, not. I hope he discloses at time of sale, that he's been using lead solder on the drinking water lines.

[George]

But it is standard and accepted practice to use soft tubing for water service lines. Type "K" soft tubing is specifically required in my area.

[Steve Barker]

we all grew up in lead soldered copper plumbed houses. There's no more danger in that than in all the other shit the government took off the market.

steve

[Steve Barker]

it was like that when i got here.....

s

[Lp1331 1p1331]

FWIW, I have flared rigid copper. It was years ago, but I remember it was ACR tubing, 5/8 that plumbers call 1/2". Don't recall it being that different from soft copper. Larry

[Aaron Fude]

Hi, what does it mean to "flare" a pipe? Does it mean to put MIP threads on the end?

Thanks.

[Speedy Jim]

Here's a How-To video:

[George]

Hard tubing will simply crack if you try to flare it. In a pinch if absolutely necessary you can anneal it to flare it. Maybe the tubing you flared wasn't uniformly hard?

[Lp1331 1p1331]

I can't view the video on flaring, but will add a couple of things that may not be mentioned: First, before anything else, make sure you can screw the flare nut all the way down on the fitting. It should go on easily with just fingers. If it does not, now is the time to find out why. Then, before you actually flare the tubing, double and even triple check that the flare nut is not only on the tubing, but is pointed in the right direction. BTDT on all three. Larry

[Stormin Mormon]

Symptoms of lead poisoning include lack of capitalization, and use of crude language?

[Stormin Mormon]

I flared 1/2 straight water copper, many years ago, to make a carry handle. Don't know if it was k, l, or m copper. Was not on a roll like ACR copper.

[Stormin Mormon]

Means to bend the end of the pipe out, so the pipe (from the side) looks a bit like the capital letter Y.

If you've done auto work, brake lines are often flared.

[Aaron Fude]

Can anyone show me a link to what the key that shuts off the water at the curb looks like?

Thanks!

[RonABC]